


Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware: THE GAME (hlvrai)

by ArcannaRyu



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: AU, Possession, Silent Protagonist, classic creepypasta haunted video game, half life - Freeform, may get spooky if i get that far, reader insert but not really, things will work out in the end if i make it that far
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24683851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcannaRyu/pseuds/ArcannaRyu
Summary: Just your classic creepypasta scenario of playing a haunted computer game you got second hand, except with the events of the stream series Half Life But the VR is Self Aware. The new player takes on the role of an intern at black mesa who joins in on the adventure.
Comments: 147
Kudos: 172





	1. Game Installation

It’s 9pm, and everything is set up in the attic for this late night test of the new VR gear they had purchased.   
  
Well, not exactly new. 

  
It was pre-owned, a classic impulse purchase over the internet. But it was the first VR system _they_ had ever owned, so still a pretty new experience all things considered.

  
And it was a pretty long overdue experience in their mind. Originally they had been planning on buying a VR set much sooner so they could participate in all the cool new games along with their favorite YouTube letsplayers, but it lost out to getting a nintendo switch instead. And with the price of each set of gaming hardware being as high as it is, it was pretty much an either/or scenario. 

But now a few months later and they’d finally found their chance with a real bargain of a buy on Ebay. Not only did this bundle have the VR headset, but it had also come with a buttload of miscellaneous console games, and a decent size collection of old computer game cd’s as well. It was one of a couple of similar bundles of gaming hardware that the user had been selling off, giving the distinct impression that someone was trying to sell off someone's entire gaming collection quickly and without much knowledge of what it was actually worth.

But hey, all the better for their own gaming library, not to mention wallet, since a lot of those games would have been like 40 bucks each at gamestop. With that kind of a bargain they might as well have gotten the headset free with the purchase of the console games.  
  
Of course, plenty of scepticism still ran through their head about if the headset and controllers even worked. It could very well be they had been duped and bought a broken VR set.   
But with how much of a bargain it was, that was a risk they were willing to take. 

Even riskier though, was that in the collection of computer game CD’s that had come with it, was a CD that was labeled as a VR game.   
And that they were going ahead and installing said game into their computer as we speak.

Now they weren’t some total noob, barely any games for computers come on CD’s anymore, and that went double for VR games. It was all on Steam and shit now.   
And moreover it had only been labeled as a VR game with sharpie on an otherwise blank CD, along with the words “Half Life”, and “Ai” for the total title of “Half Life Ai VR Game”.

And that title had “backup copy of somebody's Half Life mod” all over it. So more than a little intriguing, but not exactly reassuring.  
But they figured since they had to test the VR gear anyway, they should probably see if it works first before going on steam and downloading some less sketchy as heck games.  
So they sat at their laptop with the headset in their lap, watching the game install with thoughts of 

(whatever it is, it probably needs some extra software I don't have to run) 

and 

(if it’s even actually a Half Life game and not a sick joke meant to fry my computer)

floating along through their head.

So it was a wave of relief as the Half Life lambda logo appeared on their desk top. 

(I mean, not out of the woods yet of the software potentially not working, but still, a good sign it's actually a half life game. Nothing to do now but give that sucker a click and see what happens.)

“click”

The game boots up, and things surprisingly seem to be going pretty smoothly. A window opens up on the desktop, and some classic low poly half life one graphics fade in from the black.  
A faint noise can be heard from the headset in their lap, and peering in, looks like there’s some visuals in the headset too, nice!

They take one last look around the room, vision pausing on their beloved dog who was snoozing away in the corner in their dog bed, before slipping on the headset.  
And wow they weren’t kidding about how 3D everything looked in VR, even with the still image of a low poly room it was impressive.

But almost immediately, a weirdly bland looking error message pop up appeared on the screen, asking to please calibrate the headset, earning some internal thoughts of,

  
  
(Shit, of course, there’s probably some sort of default set-up for the VR system I'm supposed to do first. I’d better close out of this and look up some tutorials to see what I missed...)

But as that thought passed through their head, the pop up was suddenly replaced with a new one, a tutorial for how to set up the system in the same weirdly bland and amateur graphic art style that looked like someone with zero art experience designed it, complete with low quality compressed JPEG tutorial images of what to do that appeared copied from a google search.  
  
(Oh dang, nevermind. Looks like you’re supposed to set up the stuff while in game.)

They lift up the headset to check that their dog hasn't woken up, not wanting to bump into them on accident while blinded by the headset, then start following the tutorial, setting the boundary of the play area, going over controls, etc. and before long, they're moving around a narrow, sealed off hallway, just taking a moment of childlike wonder at the novelty of the sensation of just looking around in the environment as if they were actually there, even as low res as it was.

One last pop-up appears, asking if they’re ready to play, and upon giving the affirmative, they hear the classic Half-Life sound sting of a big metal door opening that had been used in so many of the gmod and source filmmaker animations to this day. It being oddly comforting how familiar it seemed despite not having played the original half life games for years.  
  


Turning around, they walked through the doors; recognizing the entrance of the game, with the security desk and the big map.

(Huh, looks like I’m skipping the intro tram ride and getting straight to it.)  
  


Moving forward, they notice they have a character model now, feet moving below them as they walk, and holding up a hand in front of their face, they can see an arm that appeared to be draped in a white lab coat, ending in a very low poly 5 fingered hand, each finger bending awkwardly as they clicked over the relevant buttons on the controllers.   
  
(Neato! Wonder if I could find any mirrors to get a look at what character model this is?)

But it quickly occurs to them that this game was probably too old to render mirrors, so they put the thought aside.

  
Walking up to the two npc’s behind the desk, they're surprised when neither of them seemed to acknowledge their presence, not even turning their heads or saying any default voice lines that often trigger when you get close to most npc’s. 

They’re about to walk around the desk to try and click on them directly, when the blue security guard model wordlessly places a small, flat rectangle on the desk beside him.

And intrigued, they instead go to inspect the object.

It looked vaguely like an ID, but with such low resolution graphics, it could be better described as a small white rectangle with a few blurry colored rectangles on it  
.And when they pick it up, having to take a moment to figure out that they have to use their digital hand as if it were a real hand, a pop up suddenly appears, showing a keyboard and a text box labeled “Name:”   
  


(Huh, have to pick a name huh? Wonder what I should go with.)

Their mind lingered on the next game they’re probably going to be trying after getting bored with whatever this mod was supposed to be, and they typed in the name,  
  


“Alyx”

  
And hit enter, casually wondering if this mod might potentially have any easter eggs in it for that name, if not because of the new Half Life Alyx game, then perhaps because of Alyx being an important character in Half Life 2, since there was no way a VR compatible mod could have been made before then.

(Probably not though, I doubt a fan made mod would get _that_ in depth.)

With their new ID in hand, they found it also activated the inventory mechanic, and they swapped out the ID for an empty hand, then set off down the hall exploring.   
Finding the other npc’s more receptive to their presence, they happily wandered around checking out the rooms, poking at the npc’s for their dialogue trees, finding a G-Man behind the glass in an inaccessible room, etc. when they hear the sound of a door opening in the distance somewhere behind them.

(Man! The audio is so much more realistic in VR! I could actually tell the direction the noise came from!)

They thought to themselves as they turned around and headed off in that direction, coming to a stop as they see a bright orange and black figure doing the most awkward hunchbacked walking animation they had seen in recent memory as they went through the hallways. 

Coming to a pause to talk to another npc, which gives what must have been the games Gordon Freeman a very clipped remark about not having time to be bothered right now, which earns a slightly grainy, but very clearly out of place voice recording of a mans over the top reaction, coupled with a very human set of hand and arm movements, albeit with a lot of low-poly awkward jank to the movement. 

But there was no mistaking it, they could recognize motion capture animation when they see it.

(Omg)

A smile creeps up their face as they follow the helmeted Gordon Freeman model from a distance down the hallway, grin finally cracking into a chuckle, somewhat stifled so as not to wake up their dog, as they listen to the improv sounding dialogue the character gave off as they went. 

(So _that’s_ what kind of mod this is! It’s one of those ones where you watch a recording of another player play though a game and listen to their comedy sketch! Like if the old youtube series Freeman’s Mind was an actual game! Damn what a lucky find! I wonder if it plays through the entire game of half life 1? That would be pretty amazing. I’ll have to find what modders are responsible for this one and give them some kind of positive review cus this is a pretty sweet idea.   
Come to think of it, that’s probably why the npc’s at the front desk didn't respond to me. All their dialogue must refer to the player as Gordon, so they’d have to wait until that Gordon Freeman npc character comes to interact with them. Bummer I probably missed out on some dialogue. Might want to see a recording of this game afterwards if I miss too much, if there even is one for this particular mod. ) 

They weren't really one for playing a game twice to see what they missed, not with the long hours of their day jobs and time spent on personal projects. So they really hopped that someone made a recording they could watch while doing something else.

They followed the Gordon at a distance, not really occurring to them to try and disrupt what was probably a pretty strictly scripted path. Watching with amusement as they interacted with another role player npc named Tommy; a nice surprise that there must have been more improv actors in on the show so it won't just be this award janky hunchbacked gibbon looking Gordon talking to himself the whole time. 

Though they were already liking their performance and probably wouldn't have minded if it had been. 

Then watched as they got into a very amusing argument with another, yet unnamed role player who used the security guard model about Gordon not having his passport. 

The comment about how the much less animated security guard who was clearly just a default Npc's fists were balled gave them pause about their own character models much more articulated hands, and how they would probably stick out like a sore thumb if actually compared against the original Half Life character models, only to get startled when the rper sang and a bunch of blue orbs came out.

(Must be some kind of in joke with the developers using a weird audio mod they really like.)

Them not being familiar enough with the modding community to recognize it, though they did make sure to memorize it being called the black mesa sweet voice in game, since no doubt it would come up again later. 

It looking like the argument was coming to a close and the Gordon role player was about to move on, they started getting in closer to get ready to pass through the doors after him,  
 **but they _did not_ expect the blue security guard role player npc to suddenly turn and address them directly.**

"Hey, how about you? You got your passport?"

Stunned for a moment, they suddenly remember the ID they had been given earlier, and cycling through their equipable inventory, they pull out the blurry card and slowly walk up, holding their hand out for them to see.

(Oh dang, I wasn't expecting them to be interactable! This must be a sort of tutorial for showing some of the ways to use items and how to talk to the main Npc's. Pretty subtle way of tutorializing. These modders really know their stuff.)

The security guard character takes a look at the card for a moment, then says,

"Checks out, you can go on ahead."

Prompting a tirade from the Gordon rper that they couldn't help but snicker at as they walked inside the sliding doors, getting a bit of space ahead, then waiting for the Gordon and security guard to come in after, intending to keep watching their bickering from a distance.   
Following along, it wasn't long before another role player character revealed themselves, this time one of the elderly scientist character models with the glasses. He was inside a broken wall sized computer, and made a pretty brief interaction with the Gordon about needing a wrench before him and the security guard started moving on. They got in close to take a quick look at the man in the wall themselves, which prompted the second time one of the character's started addressing them directly.

"You there, you're one of the interns correct? Make yourself useful and fetch me a wrench."

They turned to get a better look at the crouched character in the wall, not really knowing how to respond.

"Didn't you hear me? I need a wrench in here to fix this server. It's very important we get this fixed as soon as possible."

They look around. The character was definitely addressing them, but they were at a loss about what to do about it. It's not like they could just talk back to the man, they weren't sure if the VR headset even had a microphone, they hadn't checked. Maybe they had to try and slap em with one of their absurd looking digital hands or something?

"Look, if you aren't going to answer me when I'm speaking to you, the least you could do is nod your head or something so I know you're paying attention."

(Right! More VR tutorials! Nodding must be one of the inputs I can do! Makes sense, I mean I've seen it done before in other VR game let's plays.)

They give a couple deliberate head nods, to which the scientist responds,

"Oh good. Looks like we're getting somewhere after all. You know, you're really making this more of a rigmarole than it has to be intern… You are an intern right?"

(Guess that's the narrative justification they're going for in this game. Sounds like there might be some funny dialogue if I say no, but probably best to roll with it for now.)

They give another nod.

"Okay then intern, so tell me, can you go and get me a fucking wrench or not?"

A moment's hesitation,

(It's a bit disappointing to break off from the hilarious Gordon and pal group, but this is probably more tutorial stuff, so I should probably take the quest since it's my first time using VR.)

And they nod.

"Alright, off you go then intern."

(Alright, looks like I've got to go find a wrench.)


	2. Wrench Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The player completes their first in-game quest and meet's up with part of the science team!

Dashing off through the hallways, they scour the environment for anything vaguely wrench shaped.

At first they continue forwards, but before long reach a pair of dead ends which they assumed to be the entrance to the test chamber, which wouldn't open, and what must be the path that gets taken after the experiment goes wrong. So they instead turn their search around and backtrack towards the entrance, taking a second look at some of the rooms they had explored previously.

Turning a corner, they suddenly stop dead in their tracks, adrenaline spiking with the unexpected jumpscare, as they find themselves face to face with a G-man model, unsettlingly present in the game space instead of the usual out of bounds places where G-Man sightings would normally appear.

The model opens its mouth to speak.

“Ah... it’s you.”

(Oh hey neat! They’re having G-man be a role player in-game too! This mod is getting pretty elaborate.)

“I believe you were looking for one of these...”

The model holds it’s hand out, a floating low-poly model of a small silver open-end wrench appearing above it.

They reach out and take it in their own digital hand wordlessly, and the G-Man lowers their hand again.

“Now... With that settled, I suggest you head back. Sooner...rather than later.”

The G-man then walked off past them, turning a corner. And when they followed after, they see that the G-Man had disappeared as soon as he had left their line of sight. 

They give a small smirk, thinking to themselves.

(Classic G-Man move.)

Before darting off back down the corridor to the man in the wall, wrench in hand.

Soon coming to a stop at the hole and peering in before sticking their wrench arm in through the hole, the crouched scientist turning around and saying in surprise.

“Hey, you found me a wrench! I didn't think you would actually manage it intern, but it looks like I should have had more faith in you. Now I can get back to trying to fix this damn computer. 

You're free to go back to whatever it was you were doing.”

Wrench in hand, the scientist rper then started flailing about swinging the wrench violently at every surface with a loud _BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG_

Reminding them more of the engineer from TF2 than anything, and earning a snort of laughter and a repressed wheeze as they double over trying to contain their noise making so they don't risk waking up their dog or their sleeping parents downstairs.

Still wheezing, they leave the room to see if there was any more exploring to be done or if anything new triggered since they completed the quest for the wrench. 

Getting a good distance away from the scientist in the wall, a muffled boom could suddenly be heard, which they turned their head in the direction of curiously. 

It’s followed up with more muffled booms, 

then electric sounds, 

then the whole screen started flashing green and black as the sounds of destruction happen around them coupled with Tesla coil-esk zaps of arcing electricity and the panicked voice lines of scientist npcs in the hallway taking damage.

They grip the sides of their head and wince at the uncomfortable cacophony.

(Gordon must have set off the resonance cascade.)

The video in the headset starts fading in from the black, and first thing they see is glowing red lasers, and a screaming scientist suddenly exploding in a hail of red giblets in front of them.

(oh dang)

Vision clearing all the way, the darkened hallway has been completely wreaked, and the sizzle of a pair of lasers slowly moving back and forth could be heard along with the honking of an alarm. 

And the growling hiss of a couple headcrabs…

(OH SHIT)

They immediately start looking around on the ground for any weapons to fight them off with, having to duck and weave out of the way of a jumping headcrab, before their digital hand automatically closes around one of the bloody flesh covered bones of the scientist that had exploded in front of them.

(huh...)

They raise their hand up, the chunk looking like the scientist’s femur, but covered in low resolution meat, almost like an awkwardly put together half eaten chicken leg.

Not wasting any more time, they start swinging it around violently at the headcrab behind them, the impact sounds and yellow blood splatter showing that the improvised bone club was indeed connecting and doing damage, and the headcrab quickly perishes. So they spin around and run towards the other two, weaving around the lasers, and making short work of the headcrabs.

Getting pretty into it now, they speed off, moving from headcrab to headcrab and swiftly beating them to death, grinning at the fun responsiveness of this VR version of combat.

In the distance they hear a faint audio dialogue of one of the RPers saying 

_“Look out Mr. Freeman, there’s creatures!”_

  
  
(Man, this game really doesn’t wait up for you does it? I might have to do a better job keeping up with the action.)

And they sprint in that direction. 

Turning the corner they see the still as awkwardly posed as they remembered Gordon Freeman model talking to some other characters, who thanks to them responding back must be more rper’s, but more importantly there was a headcrab that appeared to be sneaking up on them from behind.

Easy enough to fix.

Gordon turns at the sounds of pummeling coming from behind him, then screams out

"HOLY SHIT!!"

And scampers back, arms wildly gesticulating in fear and surprise.

(oh, nevermind. I guess this part is scripted after all)

A familiar looking scientist standing behind him pipes up,

"Oh! It's you! Hello again intern :) "

"Do you... do you two know each other? "

Gordon asks, looking behind him at the bespectacled scientist.

"You mean you _don’t_ know them? I figured you two knew each other since they followed you in and everything."

"What? They did?! I mean... uhh, Look, just because we might have been _walking_ in the same direction, doesn't mean that I know who they are!   
Now you said they're...an intern?   
Wait, why am I even asking you? I should just ask them…”

Gordon turns around to look back at them, only to jumpscare himself at your still very bloody visage.

“ _JESFGHLESL!!_ ”

He takes a moment to catch his wheezy breath,

  
"Jesus, they’re still so fucking scary. You are just, absolutely _covered_ in blood."

They look down at their character models feet and held their arm out to check the sleeves, which were indeed liberally splattered in a dark red.

(must have been from that scientist who exploded right in front of me. I hadn’t noticed)

  
  
A brief pause as Gordon looks closer.

“Wait… is that a...That’s a BONE! That looks like a fucking _FEMUR!_ Don’t, don't tell me that’s _human_?!?!?!”

They look down at the bone in their hand they had been using as a club.

  
(Man, the writing in this game is really somethin else. I coulda just as easily run past the headcrabs without picking up any weapons. The dialogue trees in this thing must be enormous.)

“Gordon could you please stop freaking out over the intern so we can get moving?”

“ _Aright, get it together Gordon._   
Look, we...can’t just keep calling them intern. So would you, uhh, mind telling us your name?”

An awkward pause lingers between them

“Hello? _Did they not hear me or something_?”

Gordon mutters to the scientist beside him.

“Uhh, I don't think they can talk.”

“They cant… you mean they’re mute?”

“Yes, they weren’t talking before either.” 

“They’re mute...”  
Gordon mutters, sounding like he’s struggling to hold back a panic attack.

  
“Why the hell are they mute?”   
He continues, more to himself than anyone.

“You know Black Mesa is an equal opportunity employer right?”   
  
The scientist interjects, before continuing,   
  
“I mean you must have heard it said so pretty much every goddamn day with that recording that plays during the tram ride over here. Why the hell _wouldn't_ we have mute employees?”   
  


  
“Right, right, I didn't mean to be... I’m not looking to discriminate against anyone's disabilities here, just...jesus christ.”

“I can still vouch for their competence though.”

The scientist continues cheerfully.

“You can? Well, _I'm all ears_ , let’s hear it. Vouch for the serial killer looking fucker. Please tell me fucking anything that’ll keep me from freaking the fuck out.”

“They got me this wrench!”

The scientist equipped the small wrench to their hand and started swinging it around with considerable speed.

“Oh, right I remember you talking about that earlier… wait, that was like twenty minutes ago, don’t you know anything about them from before then?”

“Well they said they’re an intern.”

“But you just said they’re mute?”

“They used body language Gordon. Come on, this isn’t fucking rocket science. I asked if they were an intern and they nodded their head yes.”

Gordon lets out a small unhinged laugh before muttering

“Great, just perfect, they don’t know fucking anything… Hey you, uhh, security guard guy. Barny was it?”  
  


The blue security guard role player turned from what they were doing in the corner and replied apathetically,  
  
“Huh? Whuh?...Benry.”

“Benry, right, what do you think about this?” 

“About what?”

“About this!”  
Gordon replies gesturing wildly at the ‘intern’

“I already saw their passport. Checks out.”

“Saw their passport? Oh wait! I Do remember seeing you! You went through the gate in front of me when Benry was throwing that fucking tantrum about me not having my fucking passport! That was you right?”

(oh wait, that’s a question directed at me, I wonder if this means I can do an input here)

  
They had been standing still up until now, enraptured by the absurd conversation and janky mocap animations in front of them, and they break the stillness with a deliberate nod.

“So it was you! I don't know if that’s relieving or not…”

“Gordon I feel like you’re being unreasonably distrustful of the intern.”

The scientist responds, frustration clearly rising in his voice.

“Well excuse me for being a bit on edge but _SNEAKING UP BEHIND SOMEONE COVERED IN BLOOD HOLDING A FRESH HUMAN FEMUR STILL COVERED IN CHUNKS OF BLOODY FLESH IS A PRETTY GOD-DAMN TERRIBLE FIRST IMPRESSION_ !!!!!!”   
  


“Well personally I would think having someone willing to take action and do whatever it takes to survive come in and save you from a mysterious, aggressive, possibly even alien creature that had been ready to pounce would be a great first impression to have in a crisis situation such as this.”

There's a long pause.

“...Okay, you know what? You’re right. You’re right! We’re in a fucked up situation and we need to stick together. But, this mute thing is still going to be an issue so let’s, I don’t know, set a baseline for communication before we continue.”

(Alriiiiight, more VR tutorials)

Gordon walks in closer, muttering to himself.

“ _Jeeze, I knew I should have stuck with the sign language classes. Probably would have come in handy right about now_.”

“Okay, basic body language. Let’s do this. And... look, I want you to _actually do_ them okay? Make sure you can actually understand me and aren’t just fucking around alright? Can a get a nod for yes?”

They nod their head.

“Okay, and shake head for no?”

They shake their head.

“Alright what else… Oh! How about a thumbs up?”

Gordon does a hopeful looking thumbs up with his own mitten-looking hand.

It takes a moment to get their own janky digital hands into the right pose, but they manage.

“And a thumbs down?”

He turns his hand over so it points down and they follow suit.

“And uhhh… how about one of those little hand shakes for maybe?”

He holds his empty palm out and wiggles it back and forth in an ‘Eh’ gesture, and they mimic without any issue.

“Right! Good! And I guess if you need to get one of our attentions you could tap them or make some kind of noise by like...”

They look at the glass tube beside them and hit it with their bone club, making a satisfying smashing noise.

“Just fucking breaking something. Why the fuck not?... Yeah that’s probably enough communication to at least last us until we find Dr. Coomer. Let’s get going.”

“Fucking finally. I was starting to think we’d never leave.”

“Look, just… shut up man. It’s been a stressful morning. Gordon still needs a sec to calm down.”

Everyone followed after him, now including them, ‘the intern’ in the mix.


	3. Science Team, Assemble!

Turned out finding Dr. Coomer would come sooner than expected as he was literally in the next room right around the corner.

Where he stood futzing with the control panel overlooking the test chamber as a beam of green lightning arced through the window inches from him, causing the Gordon to splutter in alarm and spend a good moment trying to convince him to move to safety.

Deciding to mess with things to see what happened, they swapped out the bone club for a free hand and crouched down to creep toward the "Dr. Coomer" character as the dialogue continued.

Reaching out with each digital hand, they found they were able to grip onto the scientists model and slowly drag the still talking as if nothing were happening model back and out of the way of the "radiation beam" as Gordon had called it. 

And with the scientist out of harm's way, they stood back up. Which caused the dialogue from the man to suddenly skip like a record scratch and the characters head to turn to face them.

(Shoot, I broke the dialogue exchange. Hope I didn't lose anything too funny. )

"Hh. Gordon who's this?"

"Them? I don't really know who they are but Mr…."

He looks over at the scientist from earlier, mind drawing a blank.

"Shit I don't actually know any of these peoples names."

He turns back to face the player

"But this one is supposed to be an intern? We also had a security guard around here somewhere..."

Dr. Coomer turns to address the other scientist.

"Well, pleased to meet you intern!"

Which earns a snort of laughter from Gordon before he replies,

"No, Dr. Coomer, the intern is the other one… look let's get out of the room with the giant bolts of green lightning first, then we can work on introductions. Everyone just get low and head towards the doorway."

As everyone safely made it across the room Gordon had them pause in the dimly lit hallway.   
  
“Okay,  _ you _ .”

He says pointing at the bespectacled scientist.   
  
“Tell us who you are.”

“Well im not a  _ fucking intern. _ ”

He snaps back, clearly still offended at the mix up.

“ _ I know _ . That’s  _ why _ we’re doing this  _ now _ so there won't be any more mix ups! Now just tell us your name.”

“Hmmph!”

The scientist turns away. Then turns back.

“I uhh.. Don't remember, I took a beating to the head.”

Gordon takes an indignant pause.   
“...Bull shit. You know your fucking name. Now is not the time to fucking with me over some petty shit. We’ve already got one mute person who we’re apparently just going to be calling  _ Intern _ from now on. We’re not calling you, fucking, Scientist, or something. Now tell us your god damn name.”

“Uggh, fine....Bubby.”

“Bubby?”

“Bubby.”

“That’s… not your fucking name, you’re just messing with me.  _ Tell me your name when you’re ready _ .”

“Hello Bubby!”

Dr. Coomer shouted enthusiastically, no doubt dashing the Gordon rpers hope's of calling the man anything else. A thought which brought an amused smirk to the player.

(Okay, looks like wrench guy is Bubby now)

“ _ Jesus christ. _ ”   
Gordon muttered under his breath, before continuing.   


“Alright Dr Coomer? Bubby. Bubby? Dr. Coomer."

Gesturing back and forth between them with his hands.

"And over there is Benry, and this one here, we don’t know their name because they’re mute or something.”

“Always good to see Black Mesa staying true to their word about being an equal opportunity employer!”

Gordon stifles a laugh.   
“Yeah. We don't know much about them right now but according to...Bubby, they’re an intern.”

“Yes, and they got me this wrench!”   
Bubby says, taking out the wrench and swinging it around, Gordon having to take a step back out of swinging range.

“That sounds helpful!”   
Dr. Coomer replied cheerfully. And there’s a brief pause as Bubby stops swinging the wrench around before replying,

“Yes, it was!”

Gordon looks back and forth between the group, before replying,

"Alright, now that everyone's acquainted"

Gordon pulls out his crowbar, and seeing this, they, the 'intern', equips their bone club.

"The HEV suit is basically like a suit of armor, and I picked up this crowbar from earlier, so I guess I'll go first in case there's anything dangerous. "

He starts off down the hallway.

"I guess keep on the lookout for any more of those...monster...things. Don't let any sneak up behind us or anything."

And as he goes he pauses at the latest in a line of dead headcrabs and mentions,

"Okay so there's a lot of dead ones, that's probably good right?"

(Wow,  _ crazy big _ dialogue trees in this game. They did not have to program in a mention that I killed all the headcrabs)

When a figure turns around the corner in front of them, Gordon recognizing them immediately.

"TOMMY! Tommy there you are! Where have you been?! You shouldn't be out wandering around by yourself like this. Are you okay?

"Hi Mr. Freeman. I...you were taking a long time talking so I went to look around. And all the creatures had been killed so I just kept going forwards until I found a locked door and turned around."

(So we would have met up earlier if I hadn't killed the headcrabs?)

"Oh, so...so you're saying it's safe up ahead?"

Gordon responds.

The Tommy rper looked back and forth comically, before replying,

"No."

And things went back on the rails for a while, Benry getting hit in the head with the lasers, Gordon accidentally causing the elevator full of scientists to fall to their deaths, with a short deviation coming up again as the player met their first scientist zombie headcrabs.

"What the fuck happened to these people? I mean clearly they're scientists."

The Gordon rper said, crouched awkwardly and shuffling around some zombie corpses.

"It looks like those things we saw earlier latched onto their heads and...changed them."

The Coomer character replied ominously.

And knowing an enemy introduction when they saw one, they took out their club and inched around the corner, unsurprisingly seeing a few zombies headed this way.

And eager to do more of that VR combat, they darted up and started smacking the heck out of the zombies, strafing around to avoid the occasional swipe of zombie claws to the sound of Gordon going,

"HOLY SHIT! Intern! Look out!"

And running up to try and help, but the zombies were already down for the count before he could get in a single swing in, and intern was already darting off after another zombie farther down the hallway.

"Jesus Christ, there was like, **_zero_** **_hesitation_** with them. Come on you guys we should probably try to help."

"I don't know Gordon, they seem to be doing fine on their own."

Bubby replied as another zombie gave off its death cry and fell to the ground and the intern ran off around the corner to go club more monsters to death.

The intern leaving his line of sight causing Gordon to startle slightly and quickly respond.

"Oh shoot, actually they might just leave us behind if we don't hurry, we should probably try to keep up."

  
  
  


Things get back on track again as they reached the locker rooms. 

Without any more enemies to draw their attention, they took the time to just stand back and revel in the terrible gmod animations and hilarious dialogue for a while. 

Apparently this Gordon variation had a son named Joshua, which the Benry character thought was "a bit shit"

An exchange which very nearly broke them of their attempt to stay quiet and not disturb the houses other sleeping occupants with a repressed gigglesnort.

And with the following dialogue further threatening to break their facade of calm, they think,

(Okay maybe I should stop here and pick up again tomorrow when everyone's awake and wouldn't mind the noise)

But as soon as that thought crossed their head, the small army of scientist npcs that had been spawned into the bathroom for some reason suddenly exploded in a hail of giblets and Gordon was rushing everyone out of there in a panic, coming to a stop in a hallway a good distance away.

(Okay  _ NOW _ I'll pause. Now what's the button for the options menu so I can save the game?)

Suddenly a sound like a low electric rumbling followed by a zap came from behind, and a pair of headcrabs appeared out of a blast of green electricity, causing Gordon to go,

"OKAY NOPE STILL RUNNING EVERYBODY!!"

and sprint off again with the rest following after, not coming to a stop until they reached the facility entrance desk with the big map, now with some fresh bloody corpses on the floor.

"Did those things just appear out of thin fucking air?"

To which the Tommy rper responded "They...they came out of a green energy, like the same sort of energy that was in the test chamber."

“That must be how all these extraplanar creatures are overwhelming the facility so quickly. It could potentially even explain much of the structural damage we’ve been seeing. As black mesa is an underground facility, having organic matter potentially transported directly into its walls, floors, and ceilings would understandably weaken the overall integrity of this part of the facility.”

Gordon takes a worried pause at that, before replying,   
  
“Dr. Coomer, are you saying we might have to worry about the whole lab caving in around us at any moment?”

“...Hello Gordon!”

“Hello Dr. Coomer...Okay... then... well... the tram system should be right behind these doors. Hopefully it still works.”

(Well obviously it’s not going to work, or else there wouldn’t be a game, but let’s see where this goes.)

It takes a while for the team to figure out how to open the door, and once they do, as expected, the tram system is out, and on top of things there’s a scientist stuck on the end of a rickety broken walkway that looks like it could fall at any moment.   
Gordon calls out to the stranded scientist, and doesn't get a reply back, so it must be another one of the npc’s.

(Well that’s definitely bait to show off another unique and dramatic death animation like with the elevator full of scientists earlier...you know, I wonder if there’s something I could do here.)

Gordon was making a move like he was going to go try to walk out onto the walkway and go grab the scientist, and like before with Dr. Coomer, instead they grabbed hold of the back of Gordons character model with their freaky low poly hands and moved backwards. At first there was a bit of resistance from Gordons character attempting to move forward, but as soon as he stopped they were able to move freely again, and dragged Gordon back towards the door. Letting go of Gordon with one hand to swat at the door and get it open, earning a 

“Intern? What the hell?”    
from Gordon, followed by an

  
“Umm, guys?”

As they dragged Gordon through the doors, the rest of the science team following after. Setting the Gordon in a good spot, they let go, walked back around, and found a good position themselves. Looking between the various characters to see what would happen, or if the game wouldn't be able to recover from the disruption and they might have to restart. Gordon seemed to be looking around themselves.

“Well, umm… so the trams are definitely out. Does anyone know a way out of here on foot? Is there some sort of a back way we can try?”

(Oh good, looks like I didn't break it.)

  
“Yes, a back way. I believe going through this grate will help us along.”   
Replied Dr. Coomer as they went towards an open ventilation grate into a sealed off room, the team following after.


	4. Break Time Everyone

The team wove their way through the hallways, ventilation, even sewers for a little bit there, encountering a new kind of alien that Dr. Comer had named “peeper puppies”, a fun variation on what the player was pretty sure were actually called hound-eye’s in the proper version of the game.

And the player soon came upon another of what they could tell was meant to be a bit of a “set piece moment” consisting of what looked like they were going to be riding a sort of a ramp...freight… elevator thing.    
You know, the sort of a thing that always marks a wave of enemies dropping in on you in video games, which got them a bit excited to do more of that VR combat, so they readied themselves on the platform to wait patiently as the erratic NPC’s amusingly meandered their way over, the Tommy character starting up some absurd conversation about mixing “caution” and “danger” gas. 

As they suspected might happen, one of the npc’s went and pressed the lever, cutting off Gordon in the middle of a conversation as the elevator started it’s slow descent. 

The player feeling a bit proud of themselves for getting into the swing of the games comedy as they readied their bone club; the expected headcrabs appearing out of a vent above them and heading their way.

“Hot damn. Interns really going to town on those creatures.”

Bubby remarked as intern, indeed, went to town, making short work of the headcrabs as they leapt onto the platform.

“You know Bubby? You were actually kind of right. I actually do feel a lot safer having intern along to help. Like, they’re still pretty intimidating and might secretly be some kind of a serial killer or something, but it’s really not so bad when they’re on your side.”

Bubby takes a short pause before responding    
“I know right?”

(Awwww, that’s sweet of them to say :3 and I see they’re leaning in on the whole "a mute protagonist would actually be pretty unsettling if it were to happen in real life" joke. Nice...)

Gordon continues,

“Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn’t have said that serial killer part out loud...eh, they don’t look like they’re paying attention….OH MY GOD THEY JUST CAUGHT ONE!!!!!!”

And indeed, a headcrab had leaped, heading right for their face, and missing their chance to swing with the bone club, they had instinctually thrown their hand in front of their face to try and block it, only for their digital hand to suddenly grab onto one of the headcrabs forelimbs unexpectedly. And startled by this, they swung the hand away, along with the caught headcrab, which sailed through the air and hit the wall of the tunnel with a satisfying thunk.

(Holy crap, I didn’t know that was a game mechanic. I've got to try that again!!)

But the lift was reaching the end if it’s track, and the number of headcrabs was swiftly running out, so it might be awhile before they’d get the chance to try again.

(Awwww… :( )

As the team got off the platform, Gordon and intern making short work of the few remaining aliens in the room around them, the Dr. Coomer character suddenly piped up.

“Gordon, I believe now would be a good time to take a break.”

“Really? Uhh, are you sure Dr. Coomer? I mean I could probably go a bit longer. And this might not be the safest place for it, being so out in the open.”

Bubby running over to say,   
  
“I agree with Dr. Coomer, this feels like a time when we’re supposed to be taking a break.”

“ _ Supposed to be…. _ ? You mean like this is when you would like, take your lunch break? Actually you know what, I'm not gonna argue with you with this one. We probably should go over a few things anyway. Yeah, let's take a break. I guess...I guess everyone get in a circle. Let’s all have a little pow-wow or something.”

The other npc’s started arranging themselves in a small seated circle in front of Gordon, Benry getting a metal barrel to sit on.

“...He’s gotta sit on something I guess. Barnys got a problem with sitting on the floor or whatever.”

“Well it is dirty….”

“Hey, uh, intern, you gonna join in here?”

Gordon watching the intern turn their attention back and forth curiously at the other seated scientists, Gordon being oblivious to the,

  
  
(Shoot, do one of these buttons let you sit down?)

Going through their head as they instead started jumping in place and cycling through their items as they tried out their all their buttons and a few different combinations. Gordon stares blankly at this jumping and thrashing before turning his attention back to the main group and saying,

“Yeah I don’t think interns ready to calm the fuck down yet.”    
  


Turning away, intern spots a stray pair of headcrabs on the other side of the room, pulls out their bone club, and starts hopping in that direction, keeping with the repeated jumping now that they had started it.

  
  
“Okay, let's talk about our weapons situation. We’ve been doing pretty okay so far all things considered, but we should probably try and make sure everyone can defend themselves just in case things start getting any worse. So  _ Bubby,  _ you had a revolver earlier. Do you still have it?”

  
  
“Yes, but no bullets!”

“Yeah, I'm almost out of bullets myself, but I think what I do have left is for a different gun than yours, so we really gotta keep an eye out going forward. Find you some more bullets.”

He turns to Tommy,

“Tommy, how about you. You ever fought before? You ever killed anything?”

“.......No.”

“Do you think you’d be good at it? Like maybe if we trained you? Like if I gave you a gun you think maybe you could shoot it at something?”

The sounds of a headcrab getting beaten to death and dying pulls Gordons attention back to Intern on the far side of the room. 

“Uggh speaking of getting new weapons for everyone, can we please try to find a replacement weapon for intern? We can't just let them just keep using that femur.”

“Well they seem to be doing okay with it so far.”

Bubby replied matter of factly as in the background Intern was baiting the final remaining headcrab into leaping at them. 

“ _ It’s not a question of them being good at using it or not _ !!! Seriously is there not one of you guys who’s the least bit concerned about them carrying around that thing? I mean, at the  _ VERY LEAST  _ that can’t be at all sanitary. I mean that’s a  _ Human Bone _ they’re using!”

Behind them the headcrab leaped at intern, who tried to grab it in midair like they did earlier, successfully catching it, then slamming it into the adjacent wall, killing the headcrab. At which point they threw their hands up in the air like they had made a field goal in celebration.

“Maybe it’s an alien leg bone?”

Dr. Coomer offers cheerfully.

“No way Dr. Coomer, we’ve been killing the aliens, and you've seen how so far they’ve all bled  _ yellow  _ blood, not red. And the flesh chunks still attached to that thing are definitely red. Not to mention how it’s  _ literally the exact right shape and size to be a human femur _ .”

“Are you a scientist of anatomy Gordon?”

“What? No Dr. Coomer. But I've seen more than enough skeletons in my time to know a femur when I see it.”

“Oh please, where would you see  _ that  _ many skeletons.”   
  


Bubby’s snide reply gave Gordon pause for a moment longer than it probably should. 

“I don't know… books? Grade school science classes? Probably like,  _ every year _ at Halloween.”

“I do enjoy a good costume party!”

Coomer said cheerfully, but which went largely unheard as Tommy said over him,

“Oh, Mr. Freeman I love Halloween :D”

“Yeah Tommy? You gonna dress up this year?”

Gordon’s voice softening in that way it often did when he’s enjoying talking to Tommy.

“Yes.”

“Do you know what you’re gonna be this year?”

“Not yet Mr. Freeman, I still haven’t decided yet…. But last year I was a bottle of ketchup.”

“PFFFTT... _ Ketchup _ ?”

“Yeah... It was part of a trio costume of a hot dog, ketchup, and mustard. But we only used the ketchup and hot dog costumes.”

“Oh... do you think you’re going to be doing another couples costume with them this year?”

“....Yeah. We do a themed costume every year.”

"That's… pretty cool. So you really got a reason to try your hardest to get out of this alive huh? You've got someone waiting for you out there...at least in terms of...Halloween...partner...costumes."

Gordon's voice was growing more somber as he clumsily danced around the topic, not wanting to address directly that they might not be getting out of this alive, and what that would do to the people they care about that they'd be leaving behind. Finding an opportunity, Gordon quickly switches away from the topic,

"Wait! What about, hey Barn..Ben.. Security guard guy, you might have some bullets right?”

Gordon looks around.

  
  
“Right?... hey where the fuck did he go...”

He suddenly spots Benry and the intern jumping in place on the other side or the room in that typical ‘video game multiplayer nonverbal communication by jumping around’ fashion, Gordon letting off a small snicker at the sight before shouting,   
  
“HEY!, uhh...Bernard?! Stop fucking around for a second!”

“Whuh?”

  
Benry stops jumping to turn and face Gordon.

“Do you have any ammo we could give to Bubby? Or a spare gun for Tommy?”

“Yeah, No?”

Gordon could see the intern sneak up behind the security officer and grip his back similar to how they had gripped his own self earlier and inexplicably dragged him out of the room with the trapped scientist. 

The intern then started slowly rotating on the spot. The motion causing that Benny guy to awkwardly slide along the floor in a small circle like he were on a lazy susan, with Intern soon picking up just a little bit more speed, and the security guard let off a monotone    
  
“Weeeeeeeee…..”

In response. Which Gordon couldn’t help but laugh at.

“Heh heh… what the hell are you two even doing over there? WHOA SHIT!!!!”

Despite not having been spinning very fast, when intern let go of Benry, something must have gotten janky with the physics engine, because Benry suddenly rocketed off into the small basin of water at the base of the elevator.    
Which based on the panicked silent body language from intern, was definitely an unexpected mistake. 

Gordon getting to his feet and rushing over along with intern to the edge of the basin to check on Benry, who was calmly exiting the water via the ladder.

“Jesus intern, you've gotta be more careful. You could have hurt them.”

Intern seemed pretty apologetic though, so Gordon didn't press them further on it, instead saying,

"Hey, I don't know if you were listening before, but soon as we can we're going to try and find you a gun, and hopefully something to replace that…club...of yours. Now do you think you could use a gun if we gave you one?"

They just kind of stared blankly at Gordon as Benry jogged past them to go back with the other scientists.

"Come on buddy, we talked about the nonverbal communication stuff already. Shaking head for no and nodding for yes right? You remember that, right?"

(Oh shoot right! Interactable moment!)

Intern nodded.

"Okay! Good! Thank you!"

Gordon turned back to the group.

"Alright everyone, let's get going. We still might have to worry about the facility collapsing or whatever, so we should probably keep moving."


	5. Intern McFreaking Dabs!

With Benry running out in front, the group turned the corner, coming upon a deep ‘bottomless pit’ sort of a shaft, where a leopard print squid faced alien suddenly teleported in with green orb of light and fell onto the rickety looking walkway, breaking it in half and spitting out a green goo projectile as it fell into the pit, setting Gordon and Bubby into a bit of a panic as Benry walked up to the edge of the pit.

Prompting Gordon to shout,

“NO! WATCH IT! Watch it! You’re not gonna survive that fall. That’s gotta be like fifty feet.”

At which point Benry walked right off the edge while spouting what sounded like some half-coherent meme.

(Oh Shit!)

Intern rushed up to look over the edge next to Gordon, seeing Benry on a platform far below them next to the dead alien. 

(oh wait, can the role player characters not die in this game? That's good to know.)

And Gordon shouts,

  
“...Are you okay?!”

To which the Benry RPer replies

  
  
“Right this way.”

Intern lets off a snort of laughter   
(Oh I see, he’s trying to lead the Gordon character off the ledge)

But their train of thought is interrupted with Bubby shouting,

“Are you slow pokes coming or not?”

“How the fuck did you just make that jump?!”

  
Gordon turns and see’s Tommy running along some pipes as a substitute bridge at the edge of the room.

“.....Alright, Tommys got the right idea, Dr Coomer, Intern? You ready?”

“Hello Gor-!”

And Dr. Coomer leapt Straight off the edge like a lemming. Intern struggling not to crack up as Gordon let off his own stifled laughter at the sight.

Still struggling to contain their laughter, they turn their attention to the jump they would have to make from the ledge to the pipes.

(Alright, first platforming of the game, let’s do this…………...oh)

As they stepped up to the edge ready to jump, a shot of adrenaline hit their system as they looked down over the edge.    
Despite the low quality graphics, the VR perspective made the feeling of standing on the ledge just a bit too real. And it seemed the longer they paused and looked, the more real it seemed to feel.    
Ambient sound seemed to echo in the pit below, and it was almost as if the air itself mimicked the gap in the floor that they really should only be seeing in the headset. although that was probably just their brain messing with them. 

Using their own physical legs instead of their controllers, they took a step back from the ledge, taking just a brief moment to calm down.

(Wow... okay, platforming in VR is really freaking intense. I hope it’s not like this the whole game. Half life wasn’t exactly built for VR and I'm pretty sure there’s a heck of a lot of awkward platforming in this game.)

They let Gordon go on ahead of them, feeling a bit vindicated as they saw the Gordon, who based on his mocap movements was probably recorded with VR similar to their own current situation, seem to struggle a bit with the height’s as well. And watching him go also helped to keep their attention fixed upwards instead of looking into the pit.   


  
(Okay, just gotta go for it...and if I fall and die I'll just respawn at my save….wait…. I dont think Ive seen any autosave notices….and I haven’t manually saved even once yet….come to think of it, I haven't even been able to open any menus that might be a place to save my game either….never even been able to pause the game yet…….......................….I swear if i have to start the whole game over from the beginning tomorrow because the modders never put in a way to save I'm gonna...)

“Intern, what’s the hold up?”

Bubby shouted at them from the other side of the pit, apparently still keeping an eye on them.

(Crap, okay. I’ll figure this out in a minute. First gotta get over this pit.)

They moved back to get a bit of a running start, and leapt onto the pipes, then started slowly inching along, trying to keep their attention fixed on the pipes in front of them. When a voice came from below.

“Hey.”

They looked down to see Benry still in the pit, looking back up at them.

“Do a dab.”

(heh, oh right, I had almost forgot this was a comedy game.)

They paused in place for a moment to let the anticipation build, then did a quick dab at Benry.

“YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Benry shouted loud enough for his audio to distort as he started running around erratically down in the pit. They couldn't help but snicker and shake their head at the absurd display, but it did make it easier to make it the rest of the way across the pit and re-group with the rest of the team. Benry somehow getting out of the pit to join the team when they weren’t looking.

Heading down the hallway, they briefly get held up by some crates, which Bubby gets to punching open for supplies.    
The Gordon RPer taking the mechanic literally, acts surprised at Bubby being able to shatter a wooden crate in a single punch, which in turn prompts Bubby to start throwing in a few    
  
“HI-YA!”

For good measure, which got a good snicker out of the player.

“Oh Damn were there bullets in those crates? You should stock up.”

“Yes, and look what else I found!”

Bubby pulls out a new gun, while behind him Dr. Coomer looks at the following room and says,   
  
“Look Gordon, Ropes! We can use them for big pits!”

“Ropes?...”

Gordon looks into the next room as well.   
  
“Huh, what...are those things? Actually hang on a second. Bubby, you should still have the revolver right? Pass the glock you found to Dr. Coomer.”

Bubby turns back and forth between Gordon and Dr. Coomer, then seemingly get’s another idea and turns to Intern.

“Intern, do you want this gun?”

Startled slightly at at first from being addressed directly, they quickly shift gears and nod their head vigorously, at which Bubby walks up close, and the small pistol vanishes from Bubby’s hand and reappears in theirs. Holding the hand up, they turn it all around to inspect it from multiple angles while internally thinking,   
  
(Ooooooooo…. _ Gun _ .)

“Giving it to Intern instead? Yeah I guess that makes sense.”

And Coomer chimes in 

“They do seem rather adept at killing the beasts.”

Before Bubby responds

“Interns got my back more than the rest of you.”

Behind him Intern gives a cheerful seeming thumbs up, as if confirming that they did indeed have Bubby’s back.

“Because they got you that wrench earlier? Dang, someone really just gives you a wrench and then you trust them with your life huh?”

“.......Maybe.”

“Gordon I feel you’re being unreasonably suspicious of the Intern.”

Coomer interrupts once again, and Gordon splutters before saying,

“I didn’t say giving intern a gun was a bad thing I was just saying...I mean I still don't really know if I can trust them or not, I was just saying...look I'm not sure how much I can trust any of you if I'm being perfectly honest.”

“But Intern especially, right?”

  
Bubby’s voice taking on a slightly teasing tone, which Dr. Coomer seemed to pick up on as he responded,

“They don't speak, that's so you don't hear them sneaking up on you!”

Seeing how the conversation was turning against him, Gordon made a disgruntled noise and started to turn away before spotting Tommy, and on a whim he asks,

“How about you Tommy, what do you think?”

“I… I don't know Mr. Freeman, I never met them before today. But they don’t seem mean.”

(Huh, I bet that dialogue would have changed if i had been going around smacking them or whatever, so sounds like I’m doing pretty okay with whatever internal morality barometer this mod has.)

“Good enough for me, now let’s get...”

Only for Gordon to get interrupted by being hit in the face by another goo ball shot by one of those leopard print squid aliens that the player were pretty sure were called bullsquids in the game proper. 

Gordon pulling out his gun and shooting it before intern got the chance to, 

(Bummer, guess I’ll try out my first VR shooting with the barnacles then)

then making the comment,

“Look, we took too long arguing, the cop guy’s already on the other side.”

As he spots Benry on the other side of another broken catwalk.

“Okay, looks like we have to jump down, I guess aim for the water to help break your fall. Be careful of whatever those things are.”

“Look Gordon, ropes! We can use these for big pits!”

The team hops down, Bubby briefly being caught by a barnacle, but was quickly released by Intern and their new gun, and the team was able to make it across the canal to the dead bullsquid for a brief exchange of.

“Okay everybody, it looks like we’ve got some kind of new thing. We got a new creature.”

Which Dr. Coomer Crouched down beside and said 

“It looks like a mixture between a bull and a squid, I think we should call it the octo-cow!”

(I probably would have called them illithids, after the evil mind flayer squid race from dungeons and dragons, but octo-cow it is. Crap, I’m just doing the same thing as that freaking, Stranger Things tv series and the demogorgon aren't i? Aww well, let’s see what comes next!)

Leaving the canal, and into the next room, they see a very obvious platforming challenge consisting of a bunch of crates suspended on wires over a bottomless pit.

(...Shit)


	6. Intern Dabs 2: Electric Boogaloo

After watching the Npc’s get stuck on ladders, leap off the edge, and fall off of the boxes while platforming, They weren’t exactly filled with confidence at this challenge.

And between the stress of potentially losing their entire save data and having to start all over from the beginning, and how viscerally real the platforming felt in VR, they were only able to make it about halfway across the platforming challenge of hanging boxes suspended over a bottomless pit before they froze up.

  
  


“Hey, uhhh.. Intern? You doing okay?”

Intern looked up at him from where they had frozen on their perch, so they could still hear him at least, but it was hard to glean anything else from their blank expression.

“Guys I think Intern might be afraid of heights.”

Before he turned to intern to say to them directly   
  
“Hey you aren’t stuck or something right? You didn’t get your foot stuck, or maybe twist an ankle or something?”

“Oh dear. Well if they can’t make it across I’m afraid we’ll just have to leave them behind.”

“Aww, do we have to? After I went and gave them that gun I found? It seems like it would be a terrible waste of a perfectly good gun...”

Whined Bubby, before muttering under his breath,

~~_"And maybe I don't want to leave intern behind either, shut up."_ ~~

“Look! No! We aren’t leaving them behind! I guess, Intern just take some deep breaths, you can do this!”

“Yeah, and don’t worry if you fall, it’s like, it’s like a big slide, you’ll just loop back around.”

Tommy added on supportivly. 

(Jeeze, this is a lot of hidden dialogue here, maybe someone else had trouble when they were playtesting so they added all these lines?)

They scooted forward to look over the ledge again at the pit below, chest tightening and head swimming as they could swear they felt a slight breeze carrying a smell of cold damp stone coming up from the pit below, and that they could almost feel the unsteadiness of the suspended crate shake slightly beneath their feet whenever they moved.   
  
And while if they weren’t in the middle of panicking right now, they probably would have assumed it was just their brain trying to fill in gaps of sensation, this was still more immersion than they had bargained for, and their brain was sending out all sorts of alarm signals. 

(I’m not even this afraid of heights normally. I've climbed tall ladders, I've looked over the balconies of skyscrapers, I've even jumped off some high dives before. Why the hell is my dumb brain freaking out over some video game? The graphics aren't even that convincing!)

They chance another look over the edge, gripping the cold metal cable that kept the box suspended with one of their hands.

(Tommy said I would just loop back around, maybe it’s not a game over if I fall?)

While Below with the rest of the group,

“Maybe if we could find some more ropes, we could use those to safely transport the intern across the chasm.”

“Dr. Coomer, you’re talking about like,  _ actual ropes _ right? And not those things we just saw in the other room?”

“Hello Gordon!”

“Hello Dr.Coomer...”

  
  
  
  


“....Hey, you need any help?”

They jumped at the sudden, slightly monotone voice coming from right behind them, and turning their head they see the security guard Benry standing behind them on their same box. 

Looking back and forth between Benry and the rest of the npc’s on the platform below, they had a feeling that this might be one of those interactable moments, and were a little intrigued about what the security guard role player character would be capable of doing in this situation. So they nodded their head.   
At the input, the character replied,

“Do it like this.”

Then leaped off the box, looking like they were aiming for the next suspended crate, but instead grazed the edge of the platform and fell off into the abyss, the tone and the glow of that black mesa sweet voice thing following them downwards like an absurd sad cartoon slide whistle sound as they fell.   
  
(PFFFTTTttt!)

“Aaaaannnnnd there goes Bernard again.”

  
  


“I miss him every day, but we should really get going.”

“Dr. Coomer, stop trying to leave people behind. And he’s probably not dead, he’s done this before, he’s probably just, riding that slide that Tommy mentioned back around.”

“Gordon, we still need to consider how the Resonance cascade has weakened the structural integrity of the facility. We should continue to move further away from ground zero where the risk of the facility collapsing around us would be most severe.”

“Right, but...”

(Okay, it sounds like they’re going to be talking for awhile)

They let go of their controllers, letting them hang by the wrist straps and gripped the headset, lifting it up.

(I’ll just take a quick break, maybe get a glass of water, then come back and jump those boxes instead of being some giant baby about bottomless pits that don't exist.)

As the headset got lifted up and off, they took the moment to close their eyes and rub them, just in time that they didn’t see the sudden flashing green and black that overtook the visuals and a low electric noise overlaid with the sound of Gordon and the others panicking overtook the audio.

“What the hell...ARRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!”

“GORDON, It’s Too Late! We should have left them behind!”

Before it cut to black.

  
  
  
  


Gently setting the headset and controllers down in front of them, they took a movement to orient themselves, eyes adjusting to the low light of the attic, and taking a moment to register how weirdly different they felt all of a sudden.

It’s like, some sort of veil had lifted in more ways than just visuals and audio. The Split second between wearing and taking off the headset, it’s like it felt different in a way they couldn't quite place. The panic they had been feeling was already fading, getting replaced with feeling tired and kinda tingly and stiff. 

(Wow, I was getting so immersed in the game, I must not have realized how tired I was getting standing there. What time is it anyway?)

They reached into the pocket of their pants and pulled out their phone, turning it on to read 10:43pm.

(Okay, I've still got time, I could probably play for a few more hours)

They stood still for a second, looking over at their dog who was still snoozing in their bed in the corner, and taking deep breaths to try and dissipate the lingering adrenaline. Before reaching up their arms to stretch, with a few rotations of their neck for good measure as they thought,

(Alright still haven't figured out how to pause so better be quick. Just get some water, then back to it.)

They crept quietly across the room to the door, slowly opening it while keeping their eyes trained on their dog. 

But soon as a squeak from the door hinges was heard, the dogs head suddenly jerked up at attention, and they turned to look at their persons failed attempt to sneak by them with a mix of curiosity and that same slightly nervous look they almost always had.

(Yeah, I figured. That’s Scout for ya. She can always tell when I'm going somewhere.)

They held out their hand sign for stay, and spoke softly,   
  
“Stay. I’m coming right back. Just getting water. Stay.”

Although really they didn’t have to specify the coming back bit. With how clingy their dog was, their ‘Stay’ command really just meant ‘wait here and if I'm not back in a maximum of about 2 minutes then come find me’. Which made it a bit frustrating sometimes when they were doing something for more along the range of 3 minutes, but such is life. Scout was still a good and clever dog who knew plenty of tricks even if they can’t stay put.

Heading out the door to the small half-bath of the attic, they got some sink water and headed back, glassy black eyes of their dog Scout watching them come back into the room, before laying their head back down on the bed to watch as they picked back up the controllers and headset, content that their person hadn’t spent too long out of their sight.

Wrist straps back on, they carefully put the headset back on, surprised at the black screen.

(Wait, crap, did I break it or something? It’s still plugged in right?)

They move to lift the headset off their face to check the wires, but the screen starts turning a dark green, then flashes green and black while blaring electric sounds like it had done before during the resonance cascade, wincing at the unexpected noise at first, before the screen started to fade in from the black, and they see the other npcs around them in a small room. Which upon closer inspection appeared to be the inside of an elevator. 

  
  


(What the heck did I miss?)

  
  


“ _ WHOA WHOA WHOA _ ,  **WHAT?!** WHERE ARE WE? *gasp* What the hell was that?”

  
  


Shouted Gordon in a panic, with Bubby and Coomer responding,

  
  


“We appear to be in an elevator.”

  
  


“Oh good, I was worried there for a moment that we were all being crushed to death beneath thousands of tons of rubble. But instead we’re all just on an elevator.”

  
  


“Did we...Did we teleport or something? What  _ was that _ ?”

  
  


“Gordon I believe we may have gotten caught in a Harmonic Reflux, and have been teleported somewhere else in the Black mesa facility.”

  
  


“Is that… Is that something we’re going to have to worry about now? That we might just randomly get teleported somewhere?”

  
  


“Perhaps so Gordon.”

  
  


“All the more reason for us to go the hell home as soon as possible.”

As Gordon and the others spoke, they heard a monotone voice behind them.

“Hey.”

They turned to look at Benry.

“You’re, uhhh… welcome. For helping you with the, uhh pit’s earlier.”

(Whuh? Does he mean when he kept falling off the edge and making me laugh? Seems like a weird thing to be fishing for compliments for, but… yeah I’m still pretty down for a thank you.)

They futzed with their controller for a bit, trying to get their digital hand into the shape of a thumbs up, but then they thought better of it.

  
  
(Oh wait, this is Benry, there’s probably a better input for them.)

And they dabbed.   
Earning a almost whisper soft, but pleased sounding

“yoooooooooo!!…….”

From Benry, while they struggled to contain their snickering as they held the Dab for a little while longer.


	7. Alyx?

The doors of the elevator slid open with a soft hiss and a metal thud, and the characters all made their way out into the dimly lit, busted up hallway.

“Well we’re still definitely in Black Mesa, but I don't think Ive ever been in this part of the facility before, do any of you know where we are? It’d be great if we could get a reading on how far we got teleported by that, what did you call it, a harmonic reflux?”

  
  


“Gordon I believe we have traveled up a few floors.”

  
  


“Pfffttt, a few floors,  _ yes,  _ I know about that part, we were literally just in an elevator that was going upwards. I'm saying before that. How far did the teleport take us do you think?”   
  
Gordon took a short moment to look around,   
  
“... Man, now would be a great time for one of those ‘You Are Here’ kind of maps you see in shopping malls, but I'm pretty sure Black Mesa doesn't have those.”

  
  


“Well, It looks like we’re getting pretty close to the offices.”

  
  


“Oh sweet Bubby! So you know where we are?”

“...I think so.”

“So, how long do you think the teleport cut down on our travel time? Coomer said it was, what, 18 hours to get to the surface on foot right?”

“Hmm….with the elevator there….I’d say the teleport cut our travel time down by about………..….3 minutes?”

Gordon splutters with indignation.   
  
“3 minutes?  _ 3 MINUTES!!!!  _ That shit felt like getting... like... electrocuted and then dissolved in acid or something! And you’re telling me it only sent us a 3 minute walk away from where we had been?!”

“Yes. But at least we didn't have to leave Intern behind.”

Gordon turned around to look at the blank, mute expression of intern, who upon making eye contact with him, waved a cheerful seeming hello, appearing like they hadn't really been listening.

  
  


“Oh….. well I guess, I guess that’s one good thing that happened then…actually it…. seems like pretty convenient timing when you put it that way.”

  
  


The grumbling sounds of a nearby headcrab echoes down the hall and Intern immediately darts after it, straight towards a clearly hazardous sparking electrical light fixture.   
  
  
“WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!”   
  
More mechanical bits suddenly burst in a small explosion around the broken light, but Intern seems to pay it no mind, attention still fixed on the headcrab, until the thing leaped and electrocuted itself on the exposed wires.   
  
“INTERN!  _ Come - back - this - way. _ ”

  
  


But his thought gets interrupted as Bubby and Dr. Coomer charge forward towards the sparking electrical hazard as well, prompting a shout of,   
  
“ **NO NO NO** !! Don't just run in!!!  _ Jesus, you guys are gonna give me a fucking heart attack. _ ”

“Look Gordon, a hole! I believe we could use this to get around the electrical hazard.”

“Yes, I can see that. Just,  _ pleeease _ be careful.”

Gordon and Tommy heading over while Coomer stepped to the side of the open vent to let Intern go past them with a cheerful,   
  
“Ladies first!”

Though the audio gets lost before it can really reach anyone's ears thanks to Tommy asking over top of it,   
  
“Is this another race?”

And Gordon replying

“It’s not a race, it’s  _ really  _ not a race. There’s going to be a lot of problems if it’s a race….”

Gordon then pauses, blocking the others from crawling into the vent after Intern for just a moment, and turns around to whisper.

"Hey, uh, you guys. Does it seem at all weird to any of you how that played out earlier with Intern and the boxes?"

"Weird like how Mr. Freeman?"

Tommy asked innocently. 

"Weird like, like it was too convenient somehow?"

"Random convenient things happen all the time Gordon,  _ let's get a move on _ ."

Bubby snapped back.

"No, I mean, like, you don't think it's like they  _ knew _ something was gonna happen...right?"

"Gordon, are you implying that the intern might have some kind of a ' _ sixth sense _ ' when it comes to the anomalies?"

Coomer replied.

"I hope they do, that sounds like it would be pretty cool."

Bubby added.

"No, I'm not saying...it's just…I feel like something's off here..."

"...Hey"

Came the monotone voice of Benry from the vent behind Gordon, having somehow managed to get past him and into the vent without anyone noticing.

" _ JESUS _ ! Were you there eavesdropping the whole time?!"

"Hey...You guys coming or not?"

"Actually, since you were apparently listening in, what do you think about what happened back there? With the intern and the boxes and the teleporting?"

"I helped 'em out with the boxes."

"Wait, what?  _ You _ helped them out?"

"Yeah they're pretty cool, and like, asked for help and shit. What was I supposed to do?"

"Wait wait wait,  **_YOU_ ** helped them? Can you...can…. Can you teleport? Is that something you can do?"

"Whuh?"

" _ Teleport B _ ……. uhhh, jeeze what was your name again?"

"Burpie!"

Dr. Coomer chimed in cheerfully and wrongly.

"Okay, I know that's not his fucking name.  _ Look _ . Just give me a straight answer, can you, or can you not  _ teleport _ ?"

"I don't know what you're talking about bro?"

"UuuuuggghhhHHHHH **HHHH** … Fine. Fuck it, let's just go. Scooch over dude, everyone into the fucking vent."

"Heh… fucking vent."

"Could you  **_NOT_ ** ."

  
  
  


And things only continue to get more chaotic and stressful for Gordon from there. With the enemies getting more numerous and powerful, even with the addition of the surprisingly effective and bloodthirsty Intern, Gordon was starting to feel the strain from combat. Not to mention the stress from looking after the other survivors.    
Herding cats would be easier.

  
  


From getting in the way during combat,

  
  


“Intern STOP! Don’t just run in front of the fucking bullets when I’m shooting at something!!!!”

  
  
To walking into every barnacle they see,

  
  


“THEY AREN'T ROPES MAN!!! You guys are supposed to be scientists! Use your deductive reasoning!”

  
  


To inexplicable and confusing environmental oddities,

  
  


“Is that the, is that the Austin Powers theme song playing? Where is that coming from?”

  
  


Interspaced with the occasional frantic soda break, and that time they found a bunch of pigeons in a room, and Intern started picking them up and throwing them at everyone while Bubby shouted 

  
“Pidgeon fiiiiiiiiiight! :D” 

Prompting the others to join in as well, and leading Gordon to getting pelted with a bunch of live and dead birds.

Which wasn't as bad as it could have been, since he was still wearing the near air-tight hazard suit (the mask stays  _ on _ when you're getting pelted with birds), but still wasn't going to do anything to exactly brighten his mood.

  
  


It’s not until they come across a room full of coffee machines that things finally wind down enough that they all decide to take a proper break.

“Alright you guys, let’s relax a bit. We all earned a break. Any of you guys like coffee? I’m gonna get some coffee.”

“Coffee break everyone.”

“Yep, coffee break time team. Have just an, uhh, little moment of normalcy I guess.”

“I could go for a good old fashioned talk around the so-called ‘water cooler’ with my co-workers!”

“Heh heh, yeah Dr. Coomer. I’m gonna, *phew* I'm gonna sit down and drink my coffee though for a little bit. Gordon needs a minute.”

The Gordon character model did that awkward low squat it usually did when it appeared that their motion capture actor had sat down on the floor. Gordon unconvincingly holding an empty coffee cup model that floated about a foot away from his outstretched hand, and occasionally miming taking a sip, which caused the cup to clip into their head.

So the player takes a moment to go look around the room more.

They find Benry around the corner, having cornered some regular npc guard and doing some suggestive dance animation to the guy.

Suppressing a snort, they mime making it rain dollar bills stripper style over Benry for a moment, their janky digital hands having just enough articulation to make the motion a pretty convincing one, before wandering off again, seeing that the other scientists had gathered in a small seated circle around Gordon like they had done back near the ramp elevator.

"Ah, Intern, care to join us?"

"Yeah man, you gonna take an actual break this time? You can't still be  _ that _ wired after all that running around fighting aliens and climbing through vents right?"

"It's important to take breaks Intern."

"Yeah, and you should probably grab some coffee too, or at least get the machine to dispense some water or something. I noticed you weren't really grabbing soda with the rest of them when we found the vending machines."

(Oh shoot, are they tracking that? Was there some kind of soda drinking mechanic I wasn't aware of in this game?)

If they were being honest, they were too busy trying not to lose it laughing watching them swarm the vending machines like a bunch of slurping, soda drinking piranhas for it to occur to them that there might be something interactable for the player there as well.

They grab a cup off the counter and find a spot in the circle, pausing for a moment.

(Well, the Gordon Freeman role player doesn't seem to be able to sit down properly, and they look like they were recorded using some sort of VR system as well. Maybe if my character crouches low enough, that might be enough to get them to consider me 'sitting down' and trigger the next dialogue.)

They slowly crouched then took a seat on the carpeted floor of their attic, being pleasantly surprised when their character model below them suddenly shifted into the same seated position as the other scientists. 

(Oh sweet! I guess the sitting animation is just something that happens automatically when you get low and stay still, instead of a button press like I thought. Man, wish I had a controls manual for this mod. Would save me from a couple problems.)

Though they still felt a bit of a thrill going into someone's mysterious and crazy elaborate mod almost completely blind like this, never having read any reviews, not even really knowing how to work a VR set, and having half-forgotten the half life one base game they were still basically playing through with few alterations besides the role players.

They subconsciously mimic their avatars pose in their own sitting posture, then look back up at the npcs expectantly.

"Yeah, that's it intern, can just take a second to sit down and chill for a bit."

"Excellent work intern!"

And Gordon stifles a laugh at Coomers comment. 

"Alright, I guess let's touch base a bit, see how everyone's doing, maybe tell everyone a bit about yourselves."

He glances at Intern.

"Well... I guess not everyone can really, umm, talk about themselves, but… well….any of you got family?"

"No I do not."

Bubby replies.

"Right, you don't, you were born here. But I mean you've got to have like test tube baby brothers and sisters, were you the only one?"

"I, don't know."

"They didn't tell you any of that?"

"...They didn't tell me a damned thing."

"That's fucked up man. So like what was your childhood like? Did you like, go to school? I mean you must have if you have a degree to work here?"

"They injected... knowledge tubes into my cerebral cortex."

"Well, uhhhh, I guess that's pretty cool. Oop, we lost Intern."

A wet nose booped against the side of their face, and they have to hold in a snicker. Scout must have seen them sit down on the floor and taken it as their cue to come try and get some attention.    
Rising to a crouched position, they gently felt around in the direction the nose boop had come from, not wanting to accidentally whap their dog with one of the controllers. Eventually finding fur and feeling out the shape of dog front legs and neck, and sit all the way back down again, gently petting Scouts back with a few fingertips as they kept the rest of their hand on the VR controller.

"Oh, nevermind. Guess they were just getting comfortable, How about you Dr. Coomer? You have any family?"

  
  


“I did have a wife, but they took her in the divorce”

(PFFTTTTT….)

“ _ They took her in the divorce? _ ”

  
  


“Hello Gordon! Yes.”   
  
“Whuh? How does that… you know what nevermind. How about you Tommy? You said you had a girlfriend or something right?”

“...No?”

“But, the Halloween costumes? You said you did duo costumes last year and are gonna do them again this year? Who are you celebrating Halloween with?”

“I dress up with my dog.”

  
  


“OOOOOHHHHHHHhhh, that's...that’s why you were saying, about the hotdog costume! Heh heh, that’s pretty clever.”

“Yeah, we dress up together every year.”

“What’s your dog's name?”

  
  


“...Sunkist.”

(Omg :D)

“Pfft, you named your dog after soda? You must really like soda huh bud?”

“Yeah.”

  
  


“Have you...have they ever dressed up as a Sunkist soda can for Halloween?”

“Yeah, but the photos are at home.”

“That’s alright bud. Honestly? I'm already having a pretty great time just imagining the Halloween costumes in my head.”

That’s when Bubby interjected.

"Intern, what is it you keep doing with your hand? It's very distracting."

(Oh shoot, am I putting in a bunch of unclear motion commands by petting Scout, and that's the way the game tries to give you an error message?)

With Tommy responding,

"It, it looks almost like they're petting an invisible dog."

Their blood suddenly went ice cold. Freezing in place for a moment before their brain kicked into a panicked high gear.  _ There was no way they should have been able to say that line, let alone that naturally _ .

(WHOAH WHOAH WHAT THE FUCK!!  **WHAT THE FUCK!!!** NO FUCKING WAY!!! Petting an invisible dog?!?!?   
No game would ever get that specific with hand signs!!!    
Most triple A adventure games that cost literally millions of dollars to develop can barely even have more than 2 distinct branching paths of recorded dialogue in their games!!!    
So what the hell kind of  _ fan mod  _ could possibly get that specific with hand motions!! Something's seriously wrong here! Is this some kind of secret multiplayer?! Are real people playing through the game with me right now and I never noticed?!?!    
That…. That can't be possible either!!!!    
No random roulette of online internet people would give such competent performances! Somethings seriously wrong here!!!!!!)

They quickly reach up to take off the VR helmet….and find nothing

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Then a low poly version of their dog with matching color scheme and body type appears beside them and starts whining. 

( **!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!** )

" _ Holy shit _ !!"

In an instant Gordon got to his feet and backed away in fear and surprise, while the others commented,

"What the fuck is that?! Is that a dog?? Where the hell did it come from??"

"Oh look, I guess it was an invisible dog after all."

"Oh my gooooosh! You have a dog too? :D "

Scout kept crying with panic, curling in on herself with her tail between legs, and through their own considerable panic they’re able to manage a coherent thought of    
  
(Oh no Scout! She never even pays attention to the TV, she probably can’t comprehend this at all, dog’s don't know anything about art style or graphics, and a video game probably doesn't have the right smells, she might as well have suddenly gone blind!!)

They scoop up the large dog in their arms and stand up, mind reeling at the absent familiar textures of warm dog fur, but petting nonetheless and saying.   
  
“Scout, favorite fluffy dog, I’m here. I got you.”

In an attempt to soothe their beloved dog.

But at those words leaving their mouth, all heck broke loose with the rest of the scientists.

  
  


“What the hell?!?!”

“THEY JUST TALKED! INTERN JUST TALKED?!?”

Gordon pulled out a gun and backed away, prompting Bubby and Coomer to stand up and pull out their weapons as well, with Tommy only standing and looking around, clearly with some distress.

“HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO TALK THIS WHOLE TIME?!?”

The game had suddenly become very real, and so too seemed to be the threat of death. They had watched the team gun down a number of the NPC’s for the most shallow and comedic of reasons already, and the thought that they might be next on the chopping block was making it extremely hard to try and think up some clever way out of this. They manage to get out a meek sounding,

“Don’t….Don't shoot.”

With Bubby responding more to himself than anyone,   
  
“Has Intern been a woman this whole time?....I...I don't know how to feel about that.”

Scout was still whining in their arms, but thankfully wasn't struggling to get free, which might prompt them to shoot at her if she were to run. Instead turning her head to look at the scientists and Gordon as they would move, their simplified polygonal ears pulled back in fear.

Coomer adds in,   
  
“If they had been being deceitful about not being able to speak, who knows what else she may be lying about.”

“YEAH WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING!!!”

“Were you even really an intern? Or was that all a lie too?”

  
Bubby actually sounding a little bit hurt at that.

Tommy tries to step in front of the scientists, pleading,

“Don't hurt them Mr. Freeman, they’re scared! And they have a dog!”

“We could always kill them and take the dog for ourselves.”

Replies Dr. Coomer a bit too jovially.

They’ve got her pinned against a wall, but not especially well. There’s a corridor to their right, and they glance between the guns pointed at them and the corridor, considering making a run for it.

(If I weren’t holding Scout, maybe I could pull out my own guns and do some suppressive fire long enough to escape...but...I don’t have the game controllers anymore! I don't even know how, or if I even can access my inventory right now!)

“What are you guys talking about?”

Interrupting everyone's thoughts came the voice of Benry as he walks in from the opposite side of the room, looks around and spots them holding Scout with guns pointed at them.

"Hey...cool dog. You should give them...Greenies, for _ freesh breeth _ .”

  
  


“Benry, stay back. Intern might not be who they say they are.”

“Yes! It also appears that they’re able to somehow summon invisible dogs!”

Benry takes another pause seemingly just to look around vaguely again before replying.

“Brooooooooo, you could just read their passport my guy?”

  
  


“Excuse me?!  _ Their passport _ ??”

“Yeah….. it checks out.”

“I can’t believe I have to fucking explain this to you, but weather or not they have their passport has literally  _ NOTHING  _ to do with fucking  **_ANYTHING_ ** !!! They’re..”

“Alyx.”

“What?”

“Alyx.”

“Why are you saying Alex?”

“That’s what it says bro.”

“What  _ what  _ says?”

“Their passport.”

“Do you mean, that’s their name? Their name’s Alex?”

“No Alyx.”

“Alex?”

“ _ Alyx _ .”

“Dude you are literally just saying Alex over and over again.”

“No Mr. Freeman, he’s saying Alyx.”

“Tommy literally all I can hear is you saying Alex.”

“Broooo, you’re saying Alex, when you should be saying Alyx.”

“YOU JUST SAID ALEX TWICE!!!!!!”

“No, I said Alex and Alyx.”

“OKAY, shut...be quiet...Bernie shut the fuck up about the Alex’s for a second!”

Intern interjects.

  
“He said his name was Benry.”

  
  
Which in turn encouraged Benry to smugly turn back to Gordon and say,   
  
“See? They can actually remember names, unlike some people.”

Gordon splutters   
  
“I asked you to remind everyone of your name, and you literally didn't say anything!!!”

“Alyx didn’t need to be reminded of my name. Cus they’re cool like that.”

“Look I'm sorry I couldn't remember your name, but  _ ONCE AGAIN _ what does this have to do with  _ anything _ ?!?”

“Look, are we going to kill this woman or not?”

Bubby interjects with irritation.

They look over at Bubby, who still had their gun trained on them. Bubby, who had been seeming to grow fond of them ever since they did that starter quest and got him a wrench. Of all the characters in this game, Bubby was the one they felt most hopeful of their ability to be able to talk him down. They hugged Scout a little tighter, and struggled to get the words out.

“Bubby?...I’ve….I’ve got your back…. Remember?”

Bubby’s character model turned their gaze, and their gun, to the ground, shifting back and forth a little bit thoughtfully, before they holster their gun and look back up, saying,

  
  
“Okay. I may have overreacted a bit. I guess I vote we don’t kill Intern.”

Dr. Coomer likewise puts their gun away, and says

“Well with that settled, we should really be getting a move on Gordon, it’s 27 hours before we reach the surface.”

Gordon, adding emphasis with his hands shakes his head, responding,

“No,  _ No _ . We aren't going anywhere until we get some answers. Everyone back in the circle. It’s time for Intern, or......Alex, to explain a bit about themselves.”

“I’m going to get some more coffee!”

“........Sure thing Dr. Coomer.”

“Did you want some Gordon?”

  
  
“No Dr. Coomer, I’m good. I had enough. Thank you.”

The group congregate into a seated circle on the ground around them, Benry taking a seat on the shelf with the coffee cups. They carefully sat back down as Gordon sat directly opposite them.

“Okay….Alex. So. Who are you and where did that dog come from? Bubby said before that you said you were an intern here at Black Mesa.”

“Yes, as I said before, I asked if they were an intern and they nodded their head yes, before fetching a wrench like I asked. You weren’t, lying to me were you?”

They looked back and forth between the apparently living,  _ sentient video game characters _ , Scout curled up on their lap and shivering nervously. It being a small comfort that though apparently there was too low of resolution to be able to feel the texture of Scout’s fur, they still felt warm and alive in their lap, and using this they tried to ground themselves a bit further. Just trying to feel their surroundings and make sure this was actually real. 

(I always said if something supernatural were to happen, I’d try to think through it with actual rationality, and not just dismiss everything outright like all those TV characters who spend the movie trying to ignore what’s going on and get themselves killed. So think. Observe, figure it out.)

The floor beneath them was smooth and hard linoleum, not the carpet of their attic.    
Their hands were free of VR controllers, and when they tried to clench one hand to dig their fingernails into their palm, they found their hands to instead have the angular, polygonal shape of their avatar, which felt like a disturbing violation of their physical form. But they could still  _ feel  _ their legs, arms, face, and torso.    
They could also tell that they were wearing a shirt and pants and the long white labcoat, even if the fabric felt weird and almost plastic. 

And a bit more with it now mentally speaking, they carefully considered the tone that Bubby had spoken to them with. 

Clearly he, and probably by extension the other characters, would be disappointed if they were to do anything other than confirm their employment to Black Mesa as an intern. 

  
And they had pointed a gun at them moments earlier  _ just  _ for suddenly and unexpectedly speaking. So If they were to tell the truth? 

That this is a video game they have somehow been transported into with their dog? 

Who knows what would happen?

(So it’s decided. I’ve gotta bluff my way through this. Just do like they had appeared to be doing up until now, and be an improv actor playing a character. From now on you’re Alyx the intern. Just another survivor on the team. None the wiser. Although Scout should probably keep her name. She wouldn’t learn a new one fast enough for a fake name to be practical.)

Trying to steel their nerves, they responded,

“I….I started here as an intern recently. I...usually help with paperwork? This is my dog? She’s a, greyhound...mix?”

“What’s her name! :D”

Tommy asked enthusiastically

“....Scout.”

They crumpled in on themselves a bit, hugging Scout tighter, struggling to keep their voice from cracking as they tried and failed to ignore the weight of their situation to try and tell some convincing lies and half-truths.

  
“ _ She’s my best friend _ ….”

Gordon picks up on the shift of tone despite their attempt to hide it, and his own tone softens in response subconsciously.

“Okay, but how did they get here? Why was Scout able to just appear out of nowhere?”

(World cannon… power legs..cybernetic enhancements...clones...test tube babies...Coomer gets more powerful when his clones get killed? Benry… sweet voice...teleportation…pigeons… test animals...improv...do things change from the half life one game when they improv it into cannon maybe?)

  
  
“She’s...a super dog? She has abilities?”

“....What do you mean,  _ super dog _ ?”

“Ummm. They were upgraded, by... Black Mesa? Like how Dr. Coomer got his power legs? They can turn invisible, and, they can turn... intangible? Like they aren't there?”

“Are you saying you have some kind of a ghost dog?!”

“I….”   
  
( _ Oh man, please don’t talk about my dog dying, I’m barely holding it together _ .)

“A Science Ghost Dog!”   
  
Coomer chimed in cheerfully, before continuing,   
  
“Black Mesa was working on a number of stealth technologies for the United States military. We were even able to develop a safe to use temporary invisibility device, which has been put into circulation for use by high ranked black-ops personnel!”

“Yeah...my, dad...he used to work for Black Mesa. He.. Made…. Scout?”

“Whoa really? Black Mesa actually made working invisibility cloaking technology? And your dad was like, part of the project or something? But, that still….that still doesn't exactly explain  _ why  _ though.”

“Gordon, why on earth would someone need a reason to have an invisible dog?”

“I-I think I may have a good reason Mr. Freeman?”

“Yeah Tommy?”

“Yeah. Is she….Is Scout a service dog?”

Gordon replying before Alyx could with,

“A Service dog?”

“Yeah. Black Mesa allows service dogs under a variety of circumstances. It’s part of the requirements for being an equal opportunity employer. And a dog that can go both invisible and intangible would be a perfect dog for not being a distraction to other co-workers during the work week.”

“Okay… Okay yeah that makes a lot of sense actually. Although, shouldn't they be wearing one of those little vests if they’re a service dog?”

“If they wore a vest they wouldn't be able to go invisible. She can’t wear a collar either, see?”

They gestured to their dog’s bare neck, secretly thankful they had started taking off Scout’s collar when it was time for bed. Not to mention that the scientist’s were basically doing their job for them by coming up with explanations hiding their status as a player, so all they would have to do is agree with them and not face as much risk getting caught in a lie.

“Okay, so that’s one question taken care of.  _ So _ . Why did it take you until now to talk to anyone?”

They looked around at the npc….well they can’t exactly call them npc’s anymore. The guys? 

(Okay, so I'm already an intern with a therapy dog. Let’s just use that. Don’t need much new information to make this work. Just build off what they already believe.)

“I...have...problems? It’s hard to talk sometimes. And...there have been… things… today, that have... made it harder to talk than usual?”

“Ah I see. Gordon, it would appear that Intern has what is called ‘selective mutism’. Something associated with many kinds of anxiety disorders and most commonly being seen in one's childhood, but is not exclusively a childhood disorder and can appear, albeit less commonly, in adults, especially under unusually stressful situations.”

  
  


“Well...having your workplace get invaded by killer monsters from another dimension would definitely be considered an unusually stressful situation. Soooo…. You’re saying they literally got so stressed out they couldn't talk?”

  
  


“We all react to trauma differently Gordon.”

  
  


“Oh...Oh jeeze. So you had just been stuck in some sort of, like, survival mode until now. And now that you finally sat down and chilled for awhile you… oh christ I really messed up.”

Gordon put his helmeted head in his hands and groaned, as Dr. Coomer continued,

  
  


“Yes! You almost killed them like you killed those people on the elevator!”

  
  


“Look, please, don’t bring that up right now.”

  
  


“You’ve killed a lot of people Gordon!”

  
  


“I've been trying not to! Hell I've been trying to keep you all from killing al the scientists and security guards we meet! Don’t go pinning all this on me!”

  
  


Letting Gordon continue the ranting, they looked around at the others in the circle. Unlike the rest, Bubby was turned away from the discussion, had been the whole time, like they didn’t want to look at them and Scout.

(Well, I said I have Bubby’s back. I guess i’d better make an effort.)

“Bubby?”

They said quietly,

  
“Is something wrong?”

Snapping Gordon out of his rant to question,   
“Wrong? Bubby? What?”

Bubby turned to look at them, then at Gordon, then turned around all the way to face the inside of their little seated circle.

"I'm sorry, but I still can't get over how intern had secretly been a girl this whole time."

“Huh? Oh, yeah I didn’t expect that at all either, but I feel like pointing guns at them over a misunderstanding is kind of the bigger Issue right now.”

Bubby doesn’t respond to that, so they pipe up once again instead.   
  
“If it...makes you feel any better Dr. Bubby? I don't really,  _ want _ to be a girl? If that makes sense?”

  
  


“You don’t?”

  
  


“I...I was never into much of the stereotypical girl stuff when I was a kid. And it was okay for awhile, but... things just kept getting worse as I grew up.   
It’s like, everyone kept getting more dishonest in their perception of who and what I was supposed to be? Always telling me that...I did things that I didn't, or that I had opinions and desires I didn’t have?    
And being a girl...there’s, there’s just so much baggage there with that term. It’s like, it’s like they’re half lying when people say it.    
Although, I can kind of say the same thing with being called a man. It’s...a lot of things would definitely be easier if i were a man, and if I were forced to choose I would probably prefer it. But… being more convenient doesn’t necessarily mean being honest.”

Dr. Coomer is unexpectedly quick to respond to their vague mumbling,

“Intern if im not mistaken you are what’s called a ‘non-binary individual’. Or if the goal is to completely abandon the male/female dynamic, an ‘agender’ individual. ”

“Wait, you can just do that?”

Bubby butted in, before intern continued, a bit taken aback,

“Oh, wow. I wasn't...really expecting you to know about those sort of things Dr. Coomer.”

To which Dr. Coomer Responded with a cheerful, 

“Trans rights motherfuckers!”

“....Heck yeah…. trans rights!”

“So I assume you’re going to want to go by they/them pronouns correct? Or would you prefer some other variation?”

“I...just...whatever’s easiest is fine. You don’t have too...”

“Intern.”

Coomer interrupted,

“Yeah?”

Before saying very slowly and deliberately 

“ _ Trans _ …. _ Rights _ .”

They blushed and hid their face in Scout’s back, muttering a muffled,

  
  
“okay...they/them is good...thank you….”

A pause hangs in the air for a moment, before it’s broken by the voice of Tommy,

“Alyx?”

“Yea, Tommy?”

“Can I pet Scout now?”

A slight smile formed on their face.

“Sure Tommy. Go ahead.”


	8. The Second Most Perfect Dog In All Of Black Mesa!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn how Scout works! And also a little bit more about how Alyx works in the game!

The team started heading off into the next area, with ‘Alyx’ or ‘Intern’ or however it is they should probably start referring to themselves in their head to help keep up the ruse, struggling to try and keep it together. 

Walking past where they were  _ sure _ would have been the boundary of their attic’s room, and not feeling the tug of headset wires, stumbling over unseen piled up boxes and other attic junk, or even smacking into a wall!    
But instead feeling the semi-professional seeming low poly work shoes click against the tiled floor of the Black Mesa facility beneath them they walked, the irregular shapes of their avatar’s hands and the long sleeves of the white lab coat they wore, and the big grey dog that felt like she was made of stiff smooth rubber instead of fur and skin which they still held in their arms; it just made the anxious pit of fear in their stomach feel all the bigger.

And speaking of fear, they had yet to set down their dog, as their mind kept swimming with potential threats and harms that could come to what was honestly, probably what they cared about most in the world, and which they were too busy fretting about to really think of their own safety just yet.

  
  


The team congregated by a door, with Gordon giving a shout of,

“Alright everybody! Put your guns on! We don't know what’s up ahead.”

(Oh man, I’m really starting to wish I had a leash right now, or even that I'd left on her collar. I don't have any hands free carrying them like this.)

Turning the lever, Gordon opened the door to the next room with a clang, and a blast of chilled air flowed out from it.

Looked like they were going to be headed into some kind of walk in refrigerator level.

“Hoo, it’s freezing in there! Do any of you like the col...”

But he was interrupted as Bubby charged in, slipped on the shiny patch of ice by the door, and ragdolled in front of them, still sliding slightly on the slippery patch.

  
  


“Hah hah HAAAAHH!! Oh My God Bubby! Are you, are you okay?!”

  
  


“Uuugghhh… the floor is slippery…...”

  
  


“*snort*....Well, you heard him everybody. Be careful of the floor.”

Gordon taking a careful step before heading over to Bubby to ask,

“You okay Bubby? Do you need any help getting up?”

But Bubby just seemed to reset to his standing position without any in between animations, and replied.   
  
“I’m fine Gordon.”

  
  
  


The rest of the team following after the two of them, while Intern brought up the rear, subconsciously wanting to keep an eye on the rest of the team. Not wanting any of the...men? Who had just pointed guns at them to be out of their sight line.

So of course, this is when Benry appears behind them, apparently from out of nowhere, as he tends to do. 

(!!!)

(Wait… world cannon … elevator… dabbing…)

(He probably wants a thank you.)

They jumped in place twice, giving an unexpected jostling to Scout, then said,

"Hey...Benry. Th...thank you for, not being...mean, earlier."

  
  


Benry gives a slight pause before responding,

"Yoooooo, what? You can talk now? When did that happen?

"....."

(Did he... miss that part? Wait, he can’t have. He noticed when I corrected Gordon about his name….. Although…..Well... I guess i’ll just have to tolerate some stuff, same as always. Be patient with them. Can’t really afford to be making enemies here. And not like I'm good at standing up for myself anyway.)

"Ummm...talking is…. Is hard sometimes? But... I can talk more...now? So...I wanted to say...thank you for, defending me. I...getting shot at would be, really bad. It would...suck."

"Oh… ummm, that's pretty cool…."

(wait, omg is he embarrassed?)

He hopps twice, then runs in after the rest, letting out those colored orbs, which drew the attention of Tommy, who came back to look at them for a second, before saying,

"Autumn to bubblegum… it means you're welcome!"

(Pfffttt XD)

"Thank you Dr...Tommy?"

(Shoot, I don't have a last name for Tommy.)

Tommy ran back to the group, and they got to carefully stepping across the icy floor, not wanting to slip and drop Scout. The chill of the freezer and the feeling of the floor being slick with ice beneath their feet being considerably more accurate than they were expecting.

(Okay so the world can’t do dog fur but slippery floors it does just fine? That’s not comforting at all.)

Coomer interrupts their thoughts with a remark of,

“Looks like we made it to the frozen goods department. This is where they were experimenting with flash freezing human meat!”

  
“What? Human meat? Why would they do that?”

“Perfectly natural Gordon!”

“Pffft,  _ what _ ?!”

As they all turn the corner, a headcrab could be spotted, and they...Alyx, struggled not to cringe or show any other outward sign of fear that might draw attention to themselves. While Scout looked at the thing curiously. Until it leapt at Dr. Coomer.   
Then Scout had a decidedly different reaction.

Letting off a flurry of barks and squirming out of their grasp, Scout charged at the headcrab.

“NO!  **SCOUT** !!!!”

But instead of turning its attack to Scout, the headcrab instead did something peculiar. It made a noise, turned around, and tried to leap away from Scout!

(Holy crap is it running away?)

Given enough time to catch up to their dog, they’re able to just pick up the fleeing headcrab and slam it against a wall a few times until it dies. Gordon giving off an impressed,

“Holy shit, did you all _see that_?”

  
  


“Yeah,”

Tommy replied 

“It looks like… like the crabs are afraid of dogs!” 

  
  


“Yeah! That seems like it could be super helpful! Like at the  _ very least _ it would help save ammunition. Hey, Alex, did you… know about that?”

  
  


“Huh? Me?”    
  


They were a bit busy letting Scout come in closer to sniff the dead headcrab and try to pick them back up again, but were able to shyly respond,   
  
“She…. uhhhh…. She probably thought it was a rabbit. She likes to chase those. And rabbits are...about the same size….”

Their blood goes cold as a bullsquid rounds the corner, headed straight for them, and Scout turns and runs at the new creature, barking viciously.

  
  


(no No NO  **NO!!!** )

Desperately, they try to open their inventory and pull out a gun, a moment of relief as the familiar hud showed up over their palm of their inventories contents, same as it had been when it was just a VR game, but it’s not fast enough.   
Thankfully though, as Scout charges at the spotted squid-faced alien monster, It likewise turns and tries to flee! The bullsquid being considerably faster than the headcrab, so Scout gets a fun chase, running around a bit before Gordon is quickly able to get a clean shotgun hit on the alien as it got close. 

With Gordon being pretty clearly excited about this new knowledge.

“No way! It works on the...what did you wanna call them, the octo-cows too!?”

“Uuhhh….Dr. Coomer called them octo-cow’s, I...kinda wanted to call them Illithids.”

“Illi… a what?”

“Oh, umm….”   
They then whisper quickly under their breath   
“ _ It’s just...a thing from dungeons and dragons. It’s okay, don't worry about it. _ ”

  
Before continuing with a more normal tone as they grab hold of their dog,

“But Scout, yeah, she...she also chases deer too. It was like, one of her job’s? She would chase deer out of the yard so the deer wouldn’t eat the garden.”

  
  


“Whoa, so.. Are you saying we’ve got some kind of attack dog on the team now? That would be so cool!”

“Attack...Dog? Scout…? She’s... never caught, or killed anything before. She would just run and bark for a little bit. Unless it's a person or…. another dog or a cat because...she knows to be polite. But she won't bite things. She’s…. never bitten any person or other animal.”

“Yeah Mr. Freeman, therapy dogs aren't supposed to be violent animals. It’s against the rules.”

“Yeah I get that Tommy, but we’re kind of in a life and death situation here, so every little bit might help right?”

With new worried thoughts running through their head now of their sweet, nervous dog, who in their experience couldn't even even go investigate a helpless baby bird on the ground without having someone there to back them up, potentially becoming a violent killer to survive this supernatural video game, they turn their attention back to their inventory hud.    
Deciding to try and pull out their small revolver, which they could maybe use one handed while carrying Scout in case they encountered something that wouldn’t run away when barked at, they suddenly pause when they spot something new in their inventory.   
  


A box labeled ‘Scout’ that was next to their shotgun.

(Wait... what?)

They tried focusing on the icon, and suddenly Scout had disappeared from their position sniffing at Dr. Coomer.   


  
( **!!!!!!!!!!!!!** )

In a panic they toggle the icon back on, and Scout reappears at their left side, turning her head to look up at them nervously. Trying to push down the spike of adrenaline from their dog vanishing, they give Scout a hug and some pets while Dr. Coomer gives a disappointed,   
  
“Awwww..”

In the background at no longer having Scouts attention.

(Is...is Scout an equipable item?)

They go back to their hud and take out a pistol, the same one Bubby had given them earlier. And Scout stayed where she was, so they could still use other weapons and have Scout out...but…..

“Scout, sit?”

Scout sat.   
  
“Stay….”

They walked a few feet from Scout. Then patted their thighs in a ‘come here’ motion, and Scout trotted over.

(Okay good. They still know their commands. Now let’s try that inventory thing again.)

They asked Scout to sit and stay one more time, then walked back, further this time, then pulled out their hud, and unequipped Scout. Their dog disappeared from their spot across the room. Then upon re-equipping, re-appeared beside them on their left.

“Hey, uhh… you doing some practicing there Intern? Uhh, I mean Alex?”

They looked up at the guy’s, who had all been watching. Alyx had almost forgotten they were even there.

Trying to think of a way to spin this, they gestured with their hands, trying to emphasize what had just happened. Gordon responding quizzically,

"So...you were, demonstrating?"

They nod their head.

"Uggh, great. Okay, so we're back with the non-verbal communication."

"You know not everyone can be a MASSIVE chatterbox like you are Gordon."

Bubby replied just before Coomer added,

"Excellent demonstration Intern! I understand more things now!"

With Gordon picking up the conversation again with,

" _ Hey _ , if you ask me. I'm talking a pretty appropriate amount for our situation!"

“Look Gordon! A Rope! We could use these for....”

  
  
“ **DR. COOMER NO!!!!!** ”


	9. Is that Mötley Crüe?

Things fall back into something resembling their earlier rhythms of navigating Black Mesa, as the team make their way through the freezer. 

Thankfully, the transition from playing VR to actually being in game didn’t seem quite so absolute in more ways than just being so low poly and still having an inventory hud.

While there was more physicality involved now that they were inhabiting a body and actually moving their legs to jump and run around, it apparently wasn't necessary for them to have been some kind of star athlete before they had been sucked into the game. With their new, in-game form automatically seeming to fit closer to the kind of athleticism expected of a game character.    
A very noticeable improvement over the pretty middle of the road athleticism of their ‘in real life’ body.

With them still being able to move just as quickly as the others without tiring, jump high and easily and at a greater distance than they would have otherwise, and be able to crouch and slowly walk their way through the vents without their knees cramping up or anything.

It seemed that anything that was a default character behavior was much easier to do in general, though still maintained a good level of physical feedback. Like how even though their arms didn't seem to get tired, their weapons now had some weight to them, along with kickback when they fired a test shot.   
And their bone club, which they didn't have any issue with back when it might have well had been just a re-skin of a crowbar, now felt kinda...moist, and they were hesitant now to try touching any of the flesh chunks that were still attached.

(Yeah, maybe I should try and find another melee weapon now, since who knows if corpse diseases are one of the things that translated to this world. I’ll see if any good alternatives show up.)

It was still best to stick to a melee weapon when crammed in a small vent with a bunch of rowdy scientists though, so they reluctantly kept the bone club equipped for now.    
But really, they weren’t intending to be doing any of the actual fighting, they were too worried about risking potentially irreparable injury for that.

I mean sure, they had been fine using healing items and health stations up until now, but who knows if that would work going forward.

In fact, without knowing what kind of intentions whoever, or  _ whatever _ , it was that had pulled them into the game had, and  _ why  _ they had even been sucked into a game in the first place, they were determined to play it safe however they could.

After all, as far as they could tell so far, It was just as likely that the reasons could be sinister as they could be neutral or positive, and there were plenty of ways someone could try to pull the rug out from under them in this scenario. 

(I swear, if this thing ends up being some kind of mother-freaking PSA morality trip about how living through something and playing a game about it are different things, I'd probably have an aneurysm from how angry I’d be.)

Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those kinds of scenarios.    
  
So luckily Alyx will be avoiding one of the worst fates possible for a genre savvy person in a spooky scenario.    
Dieing to a tired horror movie trope popularised by some out of touch old guys complaining about kids these days and their technology.

Though they were still in a pretty threatening spot right now regardless….

  
Stowing away Scout in the inventory and crossing a bit of classic moving platform platforming, [thankfully without any bottomless pits this time] the team make their way into some vents. Gordon, as usual, taking the lead and talking to a mix of himself and the team as a whole.

“Alright everybody, turn your flashlights on, let’s keep goin.” 

(Oh..wait, do I even have a flashlight? Crap. Oh well, don’t draw attention to it. Just figure it out later.)

“...Hol up everyone, lemme get this grate.”

Gordon pulling out their crowbar to break down the barrier, when suddenly a bit of music starts to play, giving Gordon pause.

  
  


**~“** **_He’s the one they call doctor FEEL-GOOD he’s the one to make you feel ALLL-RIIIGHT_ ** **”~**

  
  


“...What the fuck was that?”

Alyx turned, it sounded almost like the snippet of music had come from behind them somewhere.

(More of that random music? Guess the games gonna keep up with the comedy beats even though it’s gotten a lot more real. Wonder if there’s gonna be more like that one song that was just rhythmic fart sounds.)

Gordon continuing,

“Do one of you guys have an MP3 player or something? What the fuck was that?”

“It sounded like my favorite song from the band ‘Mötley Crüe’.”

“So you heard it too Bubby!”

“Yes?”

“But you didn’t hear the Austin Powers theme from before!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I....Look…. forget, it, let’s just keep going.”

  
  


“Look Gordon! Ropes! We can use them for...”

“THEY’RE NOT ROPES!!! Touch the ropes, and I'm not saving you!”

Dr. Coomer looked between Gordon and the Barnacle, then charged forward.

Acting on instinct, Intern body slammed Coomer as they tried to run past, then threw their bone club at the barnacle, it sticking to the tongue and the barnacle reeling it in, giving just enough time that when Dr. coomer reached it, he could only harmlessly look up at it as it ate Alyx’s morbid weapon.

“Jesus Christ Dr. Coomer! You’re lucky Alex is apparently going to just go and save you anyway.”

The barnacle started to lower it’s tongue back down again, prompting Gordon to give it a quick and deadly shotgun blast coupled with an,

“Oh Shit!”

Before it could grab Coomer. Instead, the barnacle puked it’s stomach's contents all over Dr. Coomer, who didn’t seem to notice. They did notice however,

“Look Gordon! It’s Interns ‘Melee Weapon’. Here you are Alyx :) ”

“What? Aaww, noooo...Don't give it back to them….it’s sooo gross…….”

The blood covered Dr. Coomer trotted up to them, and Alyx could see their club appear to automatically return to their hand/inventory. 

(Okay wow, apparently I can smell now too. Man that is definitely rotting meat all over Dr. Coomer.)

They inspect the club that had appeared in their hand. It seemed to be missing a few more bloody chunks from it.

(...Huh. That’s interesting. Kinda cleaned it off a bit.)

They give Dr. Coomer a quick thumbs up as thanks.

  
  


**_~“He’s the one to make you feel ALLL-RIIIGHT_ ** **”~**

  
  


“What is that, what is thaaaat?”

One again it sounded like the music had come from behind Alyx somewhere, and they spun around looking for a source, only to get distracted by choking sounds from Bubby, who Gordon quickly helped, shooting the barnacle above them.

“God, watch where you’re going guys!”

“But you told us to touch the rope!”

“I said **_DO NOT_ ** !!!”

They come upon another Barnacle round the corner,

“DO NOT TOUCH THAT!!!!! DON'T TOUCH THAT!! Tommy!!”

Tommy shot the barnacle with a revolver before the other two could touch it, much to Gordons relief.

“Oh my god, Tommy, holy shit. I swear you and Alex are the only ones I can trust around the ropes, holy shit...”

Him getting interrupted by Bubby shouting,

“AAAAA! This meat is attacking!!”

“Wait, the meat?! The Meat’s alive?”

Coomer Helpfully adding in,   
  
“The meat from the frozen goods department has dangerous properties :) ”

Everyone continues forward into more vents.

“Why is it dangerous? What are we doing with meat?”

“It’s classified Gordon :) ”

“There’s actually a lot of interesting science things you can do with meat though, even dangerous meats can still have a lot of practical uses.”

Alyx added, more to themselves than anyone, but immediately did a double take,

(Oh crap, did I just say that out loud? What the heck? I shouldn't be drawing attention to myself like this!!)

“Let me guess, those ‘ _ practical uses _ ’ are ‘ _ classified _ ’?”

Gordon complained, actually miming out the air quotes with resigned sarcasm (and also his mitten hands, which didn't have the articulation to do the movement properly, so it more looked like he was sarcastically waving with both hands).

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

(Wait, if I say it  _ is _ classified, that might inflate my apparent jurisdiction beyond what an intern should probably have. All the rest of these guys, except Benry, are supposed to be doctorate holding scientists, including Gordon. I shouldn’t act like I outrank him.)

“Not...technically? I mean...Intern’s aren’t supposed to really handle anything super classified. But I still...come across some stuff?....Just like in general? Like, some cool science opportunities with dangerous meat for example!   
So, like, you’ve got some of the obvious basics, like bioweapons. But then you go into it, and you’ve also got medicinal purposes, like anticancer treatments, disease immunity, finding helpful new proteins, stuff like that. But some of the stuff I thought was the coolest was basically crafting nearly self-sustaining meats as a more effective alternative to test animals. Like everybody knows about animal testing and lab rats and stuff, but animals are actually very different from humans, and when doing things like medication trials they arent actually that good an indicator of how a substance would effect humans. But if you were to lab grow essentially just chunks of human flesh or organs or whatever was needed for the particular experiment, you’d have a more effective and arguably humane test subject because of it being almost genetically identical to humans, but lacking any sort of consciousness of its own which could experience suffering from being experimented on. Like if you can remember those discussions that happened a while back about potentially lab-growing meats for human consumption so we wouldn’t have to raise and slaughter animals anymore? It was a very popular idea with vegetarians for awhile, you probably heard about it. It’s a lot like that. And the more self-sustaining the meat, the cheaper it is to maintain and the more use that can be got out of it. Which on top of whatever other potentially less ethical experiments which would now be more morally acceptable to perform, could lead to potentially dangerous meats that would sustain themselves by gaining their nutrients through means other than having a normal human digestive system, such as by attempting to externally digest passers by who come into contact with it.”

“Oh…. dang, that is pretty cool! Who knew dangerous meats could be so full of potential. That would probably be why they’d be flash freezing human meat too right? Like it’s not an actual person, it’s like... stem cells and shit. Were you on one of the teams working on the meat?”

  
  


“ _ Yes Intern _ …. ”   
  
Dr. Coomer added,

“That was a lot of cool and also _classified_ information you just shared! Were you a part of the meat experiments? :) ”

( _ Shit!!! _ )

“Oh, umm…. Well.. No...I’m not...I don’t really work on anything cool directly.. uhh….well…”    
  
(Wait, I already said I mostly do paperwork,  _ use that _ .)   
  
“I have to proofread a lot of documents? T-that’s basically all I get to do all day? And...I’m not  _ supposed  _ to get any classified documents to check; But… I got the impression a while ago that they…. don't really seem to care if they’re giving me classified documents or not? Because like, it’s just... more convenient to have me do it than to wait and have it go through the more proper channels?”

“Oh wow, that sounds… incredibly irresponsible.”

Gordon replied, with Coomer adding shortly after,   
  
“Ahhhhhh, tedious paperwork. The bane of good confidentiality everywhere.”

“Welll…… to be fair, i've also got a pretty bad memory… and I don't talk much…. and I have no friends. So... there are worse people who could be running spell checker and formatting paragraphs on science papers. And…”

Some bitter sarcasm creeping into their tone, 

“And it's not like I would just  _ magically  _ make a bunch of friends who enjoy listening to me talk about obscure, half-remembered science facts  _ overnight _ .”

Gordon looks at the group of scientists around them,

  
“Uhhhhh……..”

Though he’s interrupted by Alyx continuing,

“But… yeah, I….I don’t...I can’t really know, what is or isn't classified? Or what is just… theoretical and what was actually implemented or not?”

(Wait, maybe I can add a bit more plausible deniability and blame deflection than that….)

“Or what I… might have just read from one of those science magazines my co-workers have subscriptions to. It all just kind of, blends together.”

( _ Alright let’s hope that’s enough to cover my ass _ .)

“Well, irresponsible coworkers aside, it is nice to have an intern with at least  _ some  _ familiarity with science on top of all the violent monster murdering.”

Bubby replied, tone having a fondness to it despite the less than glowing actual contents of the sentence. Tommy continuing the conversation,

“Your supervisor will probably have to get written up for sharing confidential information once we escape though.”

“I don’t know Tommy, I mean there’s a good chance whoever their supervisor was is dead by now. Probably along with the people who would be doing the reprimanding too. Actually who knows if there’s enough people left up the chain for anyone to face any consequences for giving Alex the wrong paperwork to spell check. I'm pretty sure the entire Black Mesa Company is probably defunct.  _ ‘Classified’  _ probably doesn't matter at all anymore. So anything you guys know that can help us survive, you should probably share with the group. It’s more important that we don’t end up killed by like, zombies and shit.”

They head deeper into the vent’s, killing headcrabs as they go, until they’re able to exit the vents into a room with a few npc’s and enemies that were also promptly killed, and also Benry was there. He must have gotten bored and wandered off further ahead at some point without anyone noticing.

  
  


**~“He’s the one to make you feel Alll-Riiight”~**

“Okay where the  _ FUCK  _ is that coming from? The rest of you can still hear that right?”

“Yes, I can still hear it Gordon.”

Bubby added.

“Okay, so do one of you have like an MP3 player or something?”

Once again, it had sounded like the music clip had come from behind them, and Alyx spun around trying to find it,

**~“He’s the one they call doctor** **_FEEL GOOD_ ** **.”~**

But as they spun around, it seemed like the song had spun with them, and was still behind them.

(Hold on a second….)

They opened their inventory hud, it just showing weapons and Scout.

**~“He’s the one to make you feel Alll-Riiight”~**

(Maybe...)

They tried patting down their avatars pockets, finding they could slip their hands into the pockets of their lab coat, though those were empty, then trying their pant pockets, and pulling out….

(Holy crap...It’s my phone?)

It really was. It was their real life smartphone from outside the game. Same plain looking red phone case and everything, though of a much lower graphical quality, like what had happened to Scout when they got sucked in.

The screen flickered on as they pressed one of the side buttons, and the phone blared

**~“He’s the one they call doctor** **_FEEL GOOD_ ** **.”~**

  
  


“Hey, umm… Gordon? I... found the source of the music?”

“Wait what?”

He turned to look,

“Oh sick man! You’ve got a smart-phone?”

Which got Benrys attention, 

“Whuh? A phone? Yo! You got any phone games?”

“Ummm.. yeah….lemme just...”

With Gordon continuing, 

“I guess you were just too out of it survival mode to realize your phone was playing music earlier huh? That’s okay.”

“Umm.....Yeah,...I guess? I think...I think it’s on a youtube playlist I had been, trying to find new songs to add to my library with?”

“Wait wait, HOLY SHIT  _ YOUTUBE _ ?!? DO YOU STILL HAVE INTERNET?????”

(.....holy crap,  _ do I have internet??? _ )

Their attention snapps back to the phone screen, eyes scanning it intently,

(............oh.)

They could recognise the youtube red color and vague overall formatting, but the phones screen was too low resolution to make out anything more distinct than blurry colored boxes on other, differently shaped blurry colored boxes.

Once again, they were let down by the outdated graphics of the game world. Apparently there just wasn’t enough resolution to render something as small as a smartphone screen.

They tried using their finger to scroll or click on some of the boxes, but the phone screen didn’t seem to register the input at all.   
So no reading it, and no trying to blindly scroll their way through it. 

Gordon got up close, trying to get a look

“Do you have any bars?!! Can you call for help?!?!?!?!”

Benry also came around to lurk over their shoulder.

“.....Games?”

“Ummm….”

Not thinking of any better way to explain, they turn the phone screen around to show Gordon and Benry independently. Gordon responding with,

“...Ohhhhh...Come on, what the fuck is thaaaaaaaat :( ”

“...Yeah. It’s….… It’s definitely  _ connected  _ to the internet. But... the screen is all messed up. And, I can't… I can’t tap the screen either. The touch screen isn’t working. I...I think...I think maybe it got fried in the resonance cascade?”

  
Benry looked around vaguely, before asking,   
  
“You got  _ *lip smack* _ you got…  _ Raid Shadow Legends _ ?”

Which prompted Gordon to snap back,

“Dude! Can’t you see that the phone is  _ clearly  _ all messed up! You can’t see shit on it! We probably can’t even use it to call for help! Let alone play some phone game!”

Benry looked back and forth between Gordon and Alyx again, before saying,

“You….You got Pokemon Go?”

Which Alyx responded softly,

“ _ Oh man... I love pokemon go... _ ”   
  


(But that one, of all the phone games, is probably one best  _ not  _ played here. If the GPS worked at all, it would probably just give them a scenic view of  _ my house _ , instead of Black Mesa. Unless this world actually has its own GPS? A map could be pretty handy right now...although seems like there would be a lot of added implications if this place had a functioning, Pokemon Go compatible GPS…..)

Benry continued with what was probably meant to be a more encouraging variant of their usual monotone.

“Could get some….Black Mesa pokemon. Catch like… 40 rattatas….”

“HSHFS!  _ Trying to play a different game wouldn’t make a fucking difference on a phone that doesnt fucking work _ !!!!”

“....Angry Birds?”

Gordon splutters trying to hold back angry expletives while ALyx gently responds,   
  
“Sorry Benry, not even offline games. My phone is too busted up to play any cool games. I’ve gotta get it fixed first. If it even can be fixed. I might have to get a new phone, this one is so broken.”

“Ohhhh… bummer…you got Flappy Bird though?”

“Not even a measly little flappy bird for this poor little phone :( “

They stowed the phone back in their pocket.

(Maybe I can break him out of this loop of asking for games by changing the subject.)   
  
“But at least...At least my nintendo switch is still safe at home? So _ it _ didn’t get resonance cascaded and dunked in the sewer water. If….If we get out of Black Mesa, maybe we can... play switch games instead?”

(It might be the only game system I have left if whatever it is that’s happening now fry’s my laptop, but...Benry doesn’t have to know that. And just...pretend like you aren’t probably going to get shot to death immediately as soon as the military arrive to ‘cover up’ the incident later in the story. Yeah...just gonna, I’m gonna escape this computer game, and if the others get out too, I’ll let Benry play some Mario Odyssey or something. Don’t be getting all hopeless and suicidal and ….Just…. don’t...)

“Oh... epic bro, I could play some switch games.”

Tommy adds in cheerfully,

“What games do you have :D”

“Oh.. well, I actually…. I just got a lot more games very recently! So now i've got mario tennis, smash bro’s, alien isolation, Spongebob battle for bikini bottom, luigi’s mansion, a friday the 13th game, some professor layton game...”

This time It was Gordon who interrupted.

“Hey, do you by any chance have any... Donkey Kong games?”

“Oh... yeah, I do actually. There was a, DK game in there with the new games I just got. You a...You a fan of Donkey Kong stuff?”

  
  


“Oh! Ummm...It’s not really...I just thought i’d ask? It seemed almost like...hmmm...”

Gordon sounded oddly thoughtful for a moment, but had his train of thought was quickly broken by Benry, who started a monotone,

“D-K, Donkey Kong...”

“No.”

“He’s the leader of the bunch...You know him well...”

“Benry Noooo...”

“He’s finally back to _ *lip smack* _ kick some…. tail….”

“Benry I swear to god...”

“D-K, Donkey Kong……....D-K, Donkey Kong...”

“ _ Oh my god he isn't even singing it right _ …. Alright new plan everybody, we’re leaving Benry behind. Everyone except for Benry, let’s get a move on.”

Gordon started running, with the scientists following after once they saw him going, along with Alyx after a bit of hesitation.

“Aww what? You can’t leave me behind bro.”

Benry started jogging after the group, with Coomer remarking,

“A good leader doesn’t leave people behind Gordon.”

Which gives Gordon pause as he couldn’t help but complain,

“What? Dr. Coomer you’re always trying to leave group members behind for literally no reason. You aren’t really in a good position to be the one complaining about that.”

“Hello Gordon! Only 43 more hours until we reach the surface :) ”

  
“43?!”   
  


(Okay, Dr. Coomer is still doing some sort of comedy bit and can’t be trusted with their time frames, got it.  _ Hey wait a second was that a G-Man _ ?)

They stopped and walked back a little bit, coming to a closed door, with a G-man standing on the other side able to be seen through a little window.

(Dang, hadn’t seen one of them in awhile.)

“Yo, why’d you stop?”

Apparently Benry had caught up to them.

“Oh, ummm...G-”

(Wait, no, shouldn’t call him G-man. That’s like a fan-name, not an in-universe name, what if it outs me as a player?)

“Guy. Suit guy over there.”

“Whuh?”

“Guy in a suit, other side of door?”

They said with an added pointing from one hand, but when they turned their attention back to the door the G-man was gone. They tried opening the door as well, but it appeared to be locked.

“Oh… I guess they left. We should probably just catch up with the others.”

Coming up the stairs, they find the rest of the group taking on some headcrab zombies.

(Oof, okay, let’s see if I can aim guns or not now.)

And they pulled out a revolver, took aim, and BOOM Headshot!

(Oh dang, am I good at this? :D )

The zombie crumples, and they turn their aim to the next one,

_ Bang Bang! _

It goes down too.

“Nice shot :) ”

Bubby Adds 

(Whoa, maybe I can still have some fun with the fighting after all? )

“Was that the last of them?”

  
Gordon ducks into a side room, then continues,

“Yeah that looks like it was the last of them, nice.”

(I want more zombies to kill...)

Bubby goes into one of the side rooms, Gordon watching them go, finding a scientist NPC, who gave a soft, pre-recorded line of,

“ _ It appears that you need medical attention right away, let’s try this _ .”

To which Bubby responded,

“Oh you’re right.”

The NPC did an animation where they raised up an arm with a syringe in it and gestured at Bubby.

“Oh, he just injected me with drugs!”

“Oh nice! Nice bro...”

At which point Bubby Shot the NPC then replied,

“The drugs are taking effect :D ”

“Whuuuhhh…! What kind of drugs?! Are you under the effects?”

“Oh look more drugs!”

Bubby running to a corner behind a desk. Alyx taking the opportunity to ask,

“Can I get some of those drugs Bubby?”

“You snooze, you lose, Intern ;p ”

“Aww… :( ”

Gordon taking control of the conversation again with,

“Bubby, are you good to go on?”

“Yep!”

At which point Bubby somehow managed to accidentally shoot himself with his shotgun

“OH SHIT!”

“Huh? Where did that blood come from?”

“Dude! You just shot yourself!”

“Really?”

“Yeah Dude!”

“Oh!”

“Okay Bubby, maybe you should switch to your non-gun weapons for a little bit till the drugs wear off. And then just…. Slowly come this way...”

Wandering off from that absurdity, Alyx checks further down the hall to see where they were headed next. Unfortunately, all there was to see was an empty elevator shaft with a ladder on the far side.

(Oh no...)

“Well the ladder is over there. It’s a bit of a jump but I think we could make it.”

Came the voice of Dr. Coomer standing beside them.

They looked down the shaft. It wasn’t a bottomless pit, but was still more than high enough to turn them into a bloody crumpled mess at the bottom.

(Damn it, why couldn’t I have gotten sucked into a game that didn’t have these leap of faith jumps?)

They didn’t feel as panicked as they had been earlier when they looked over the edge, it seemed like they were back closer to more normal levels of anxiety, which was still relatively high. Without looking up from the elevator shaft, they replied softly to Dr. Coomer

“Just gotta….Parkor, huh Dr. Coomer?”

“Indeed!”

At which point Benry charged past, shouted a grainy and distorted,

“ _ PaArKoR! _ ”

And leapt into the elevator shaft, managing to hit the ladder on the other side and make their way up.

“Oh, dang? Benry?”

“ **_PaArKooooooR_ ** _! _ ”

  
  


“Heh… Heck yeah! Parkour!”

Gordon arrives, drawn by the shouting,

“Hey you guys doing Parkour over here?”

“Yeah, Benry...Benry did a parkour.”

He looks at the elevator shaft,

“Oohhhhhhhh shit, do we have to jump that?”

**_“ P̴͙̬͚͐̎̎a̸̘̼̣̯̍͑̚r̴̙̲̥̗̎k̸̲̼̦̀̾o̵̙̟͙̓̄̽̇ȗ̷͈̤̈́͘r̴͍̥̻̮̾͊”_ **

Benry responded, along with a cheerful

“Parkour!”

From Coomer joining in.

Backing up from the action, Alyx took a moment to collect their thoughts. And with one last glance around the room for enemies, they took out Scout, saying softly,

“Hiiiii Scout. Who's a good dog? Hello? Who’s all fluffy?”

And giving them a few pets.   
Scout reveling in the attention for a moment before wandering off to go sniff around the room. Trusting Scout not to wander out of sight, they sat down to think for a moment.

(Well, I might die in a few moments trying to jump across an elevator shaft. Is it...Is it better to leave Scout here? If I jump and don’t make it, they wouldn’t be going with me, and if I do make it, I could teleport them back to my side.)

Behind them, a grainy, bass boosted

“  **_Ṕ̸͎̈͘a̶̼͎̪̲̋̃̃ą̶͇͖̮͒ȧ̴̞̤͒͑ȃ̸͕a̵̳͉̩͝r̴̩̖̟͂̓͒k̴̥̯̠̃̀ǫ̷͇͝o̵̟̻͆o̴̢̯͍͋̓͑̕ô̸̢̆̅̿o̵̧̓͐u̴͚̖͈̗̇u̷̡̻̮͝u̶̱̓͘ǘ̷̙͚̪̾ư̶̙̮̮͑̈́r̵̘͎͆̃̚͝_ ** ”

Echoed over.

(But what if the other guys can’t equip Scout? Would it be worth the risk of leaving her here in this area of the game forever?)

  
  


“Oh hey, it’s that guy in the suit again?”

(Wait what?)

They turned around to look in the groups direction, and on a catwalk above them just out of reach, was indeed a G-man, looking down at the group below.

(Wait, I just saw him earlier. The game developers wouldn’t put two G-man sightings so close together, so that  _ must  _ be a modder version of G-man. Like in the beginning of the game, the one who gave me the wrench.)

“Gordon, what are you talking about?”

“Right up there, on that hallway above us! He’s right there!”

“What is Gordon?”

(Can they...not see him?)

“What? You guys saw him earlier though?”

G-man turned from the group to look at Alyx instead, similarly drawing Gordons attention to them.

“Hey Alex! Can you see him?”

(Shoot, should I admit I can? What kind of consequences would that have if only me and Gordon can see them? If I admitted that to the others?)

“...”   
  


“Ummm… I was over here hanging out with Scout. Did I miss something?”

“Ugggh...well… Fuck it. Nevermind I guess.”

Gordon replied bitterly, turning back towards the elevator shaft, and without any eyes on them, Alyx stood up and turned their attention back to the man above, who returned their gaze.

(That’s  _ definitely  _ a modder G-man. They… Helped before, with the wrench. Are they looking to help out again? How could I ask them that without alerting the others?)

They looked down, fidgeting for a moment, then looked back up again, and tilted their head to the side questioningly, like a dog who didn’t understand what someone was saying, and hoped it was enough to get the point across.

Apparently the man understood  _ something  _ from the gesture, as they turned to look at the elevator, then back to Alyx.

Alyx paused for a moment, then subtly pointed at Scout.   
And the G-man Nodded.

(Welll….I guess they’re here to help, just in case.)

Gesturing at Scout to come follow them, they headed back over to the others by the elevator shaft, just as Gordon was getting ready to make the leap.

“Alright, clear the way? I need like, so much space for this, you don't know how hard this is for me.”

He lowered slightly, arms raised in a running stance   
  
“Okay, are you ready? 3..2...1...GORDON!!!”

And he charged forward, but,

**~*Record Scratch* Here--Here--Here We Gooo!~**

“Holy Shit What the FUCK??!?!”

Gordon swerved to the side, hitting the wall instead of going over the edge, spinning around in a panic and pressing his back and arms against the wall in alarm, panting heavily 

(!!!!)   
  


**~So they're finally here, performing for you, If you know the words, you can join in too!~**

“What the FUCK?! DK?? WHAT?? Why?!?”

Fumbling, Alyx managed to pull their phone out of their back pocket, and tried pressing the side buttons in hopes of getting the song to stop.

**~Put your hands together, if you want to clap, As we take you through this monkey rap!~**

“I thought you said your phone didn't work!!! What the  _ FUCK  _ Is this shit??!?! Are you trying to get me killed???!!!!”

“It...It doesn't! I don’t know how it’s doing this?!”

And from inside the elevator shaft came,   
  


“Yoooooo, it’s the DK rap! It’s playing the song! That’s so fucking epic yo...”

**~** **_Huh_ ** **!**

**DK….Donkey Kong!~**

  
  


“ _ Well turn it off before I get another fucking heart attack _ ?!?!”

“It...Wont?”

**~He's the leader of the bunch, you know him well, He's finally back to kick some tail!~**

“What do you mean it won't? And how did it know to play the DK rap??”

“It must… It must have some...voice commands? It must still… It might be doing speech to text? Or something? And it must have heard Benry singing the DK rap earlier and, put it into a search bar?”

**~His coconut gun can fire in spurts, If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt!~**

  
  


“Are you saying your phone has been listening this whole time?!?”

“Thats...it’s the only explanation I could think of?”

  
  


**~He's bigger, faster, and stronger too, He's the first member of the DK crew!~**

  
  


Having calmed down a bit, Gordon moves away from the wall and headed back to a starting position.

“Well, maybe it’ll be good luck for making the jump? I mean apes are really good at jumping and climbing. I mean that makes sense right?”

Benry adding a supportive,

“Monkey rap for some sick parkour brooooo...”   
  


**_~Huh_ ** **!**

**DK….Donkey Kong! DK….Donkey Kong is here!~**

“Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh, I hate this so muuuuucchhhhhh.”

And he charged forward once more, half-yelling as he did so, and leaped!

“I did it!! Oh my GOD!!!.... _ Jesus. _ ”

**~This Kong's got style, so listen up dudes, She can shrink in size, to suit her mood~**

Tommy follows almost immediately after, likewise making it.

“Fuck Yeah Tommy! You  _ GET IT _ .”

“Yooooooo, Tommyyyyy...”

**~She's quick and nimble when she needs to be, She can float through the air and climb up trees!~**

Coomer follow’s after, also making it.

“Great Job Coomer! Alright, Bubby? Alex? Which of you is next?”

**~If you choose her, you'll not choose wrong, With a skip and a hop, she's one cool Kong!** **_Huh_ ** **!**

**DK….Donkey Kong!~**

“Ummm, I should probably go last for...reasons, you go ahead Bubby?”

Bubby looks back and forth then replies,   
  
“No way am I jumping during Lanky Kongs segment, you go next Intern.”

**~He has no style, he has no grace, Th-this Kong has a funny face~**

(Oof, yeah, I can see what he means. Well…..Moment of truth I guess...)

They glance up at the still present G-man above, then sign for Scout to sit, which she does, and tells Bubby,

“Keep her there until after I jump Bubby.”

“Well alright.”

**~He can handstand when he needs to, And stretch his arms out, just for you~**

They sprint, leap, and...Grab the ladder with one hand!

(!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Scout immediately stands up and starts crying in a panic, and they have to quickly get to the ledge and open their inventory to unequip Scout.

**~Inflate himself just like a balloon, This crazy Kong just digs this tune!~**

“You made it! Alright Bubby, just waiting on you!”

“Alright Gordon, here I go.”

**~Huh!**

**DK...Donkey Kong! DK….Donkey Kong is here!~**

Bubby makes the jump, and the team heads up the shaft, DK Rap continuing to play, until they reach the suspended elevator.

(Huh, wasn’t there supposed to be a scientist holding onto the ladder here that falls to their death when you get close? Maybe there’s another elevator that has that?)

“Looks like there’s a grate we can pry off.”

“Yeah, good thinking Coomer. The doors probably open to the next floor inside. You wanna try punching it off?”

Coomer crouches and starts punching the grate, when suddenly the world get’s overcome with an electric sound and rapidly flashing green and black, coupled with the sound of Gordon yelling in pain and alarm, before everything fades to black. 


	10. Ballistophobia

Vision slowly returning from the black, “Alyx” the “Intern” slowly looks around. They appear to be in another elevator.

Gordon starting up his usual running commentary.   
  
“Oh come on, again with the elevator? Wait…. this isn’t the same elevator is it? Jesus christ if we’ve teleported all the way back to where we were like an hour ago, and we’re gonna have to jump over those fucking pits and shit again _ I'm going to  _ **_fucking_ ** _ lose it _ .”

“Look Gordon, the grate above us has been broken. I believe we have successfully made it into the elevator :) ”   
  
“Wait, Grate? What are you…. Nooooo…. No fucking way. Did we literally only get teleported  **6 fucking feet away** from where we were already heading to!?! We get to be fucking... electrocuted or some shit, and we don’t even get to actually move forward at all?!?!?”

“We moved forward into the elevator :) ”

Gordon made an angry sound like he was about to lash out in frustration at Dr. Coomer, but almost immediately strangled the sound, replacing it with a more agreeable tone and a resigned,   
  
“Right, okay Dr. Coomer, yeah. We made it into the elevator.”

“Gordon could you stop complaining like a little bitch baby and get moving.”   
  
Bubby interjects, already having left the elevator.   
  
Alyx does a headcount, softly saying   
  
“We didn't lose anyone in the teleport did we?”   
  
To which Gordon spins around to look   
  
“Oh shit I hadn’t thought about that are we…. Yeah we’re all here. Benry, Tommy, Alex…. Yeah we’ve got everyone.”

The group files out, setting off an npc interaction, as a scientist shouts   
  
“FOR GOD’S SAKE OPEN THE SILO DOOR! THEY’RE COMING FOR US! IT’S OUR ONLY WAY OUT! OH MY GOD WE’RE DOOMED!!!!”

And runs off, Bubby immediately running after shouting,

“No! Don't do it!”

Before the npc runs straight into a trip mine and explodes. Bubby pausing, then turning around to run back while saying.

“Well, can’t say I didn’t try to warn them.”

Gordon looks in the window that the now exploded scientist had been shouting at, muttering to himself,   
  
“Who was he even talking to? There’s nobody in there.”

While Alyx looks around. They spot a first aid and HEV suit charging station on the wall beside the door. And curious, they decide to quickly try them out.   
  
(If I can still use these, It’ll be a lot easier to survive more than a single bullet wound or unexpected headcrab. At least, if that's how it works in the game now.)

They run up to the stations and attempt to use them, but they make the ‘already maxed out’ noise.

(Damn, I guess I haven't actually lost any health since I got sucked into the game to be able to test it.)

They definitely didn’t feel like they had any injuries, so it might be they just have full hp. But without an actual number getting listed in their inventory hud, it’s hard to be completely sure. In fact, they're hesitant to trust anything in the game that might be potentially life threatening, even healing from damage might potentially be a lie. 

And furthermore, they weren’t sure of a way to safely take just a tiny bit of damage in order to test it. Like they weren’t exactly going to just shoot themselves in the foot like Bubby had accidentally done earlier. 

Experimentally, they made a fist with one hand and attempted to punch what was clearly supposed to be a concrete wall beside the first aid station, to see if maybe they could make their hand a bit sore.

But it did not feel like hitting a cement wall at all. If anything it felt more like hollow thin wood, or maybe like the surface of a trampoline, but stiffer. And they could have sworn part of their hand clipped into the wall when they punched it too. 

This unexpected texture discrepancy caused them to immediately recoil on instinct away from the wall. 

Catching the attention of Benry behind them, who nonchalantly said,   
  
“That’s not how you use that.”

Which startled them a second time, recoiling this time away from Benry.

“Oh, uhh… yep. I’m just punching things. Just because.”

Glancing back, their punch had left a mark on the wall that was clearly a bullet hole. Showing off yet more low poly janky rules of this world. 

Alyx tried not to make a jokey comment on it. Instead darting off away from the wall stations and letting the other scientists go inspect the red silo door behind them.

Their hand didn’t hurt at all from punching the wall, and didn’t look to have any physical damage to it, at least as much as their creepy low poly hands could display damage.   
  
(You know, I don't think I even have fingernails anymore when I'm like this.)

So that attempt to try and get hurt just enough to use a med station had failed, the scientists interactions continuing around their private little existential crisis with Bubby running up to Gordon and saying,

“We have to get through silhode.”

“Silhode? I think that says Silo D.”

With Coomer chiming in amusingly with,   
  
“Are you an english major Gordon?”

As Gordon tried to break into the room behind them with his crowbar, though it wasn’t enough and they’d need to find another way in if they were to reach the silo door controls.

  
A task that suddenly gets a lot more urgent as Tommy shoots a button on the wall, setting off an alarm, and the door ahead of them starts to close.

“OH SHIT! Tommy! Fuck!! Everyone get the fuck…”

Gordon scrambling to get through the door before it shuts, Benry standing beneath it as the door presses against his helmeted head and he says,   
  
“I’ll hold it up.” 

Gordon urges the rest of the science team to rush through the gap, and as Bubby is the last to slip by, Benry ragdolls with a very unconvincing bad acting death noise. His body still right under the quickly lowering door.

Without hesitating, Alyx grabs hold of Benry and slides him away from the door just before it closes. Coomer letting off a solemn,   
  
“We’ll never forget you Bipple.”

And Gordon replying,   
  
“What? Dr. Coomer no, that can’t have been enough to kill him. Alex, do they have like, a pulse or something?”

And Dr. Coomer continuing,

“It’s very sad, but it had to happen Gordon.”

“What are you talking about? He probably just like, passed out or something.”

He goes over and crouches with a pose like an arthritic gibbon beside Alyx, who was looking baffled about how they were supposed to be able to even feel a pulse in such a poorly rendered world where skin was more analogous to warm cardboard. Gordon continuing,

“Look, we can just bring him to a first aid station right?”

Alyx looks at Gordon, then back at Benry, then stood up and said,   
  
“Yep.”

  
(I don’t know if first aid stuff will work on me yet, but it should work on the characters in the game right? Unless Benry is just dead….. but better safe than sorry.)

Grabbing hold of Benry’s janky rag doll corpse and trying to get situated in a comfortable enough way to carry him, deciding on something almost like a backpack/piggy back ride.

“You good intern?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, we’ll just bring Benry to a first aid station, and then we’ll keep making our way out of here….. Awww shit.”

As they turn the corner, they see what appear to be a couple more trip mines in the pathway.   
  
“Alright, we’ve got more claymores up ahead, everyone stand back for a second so I can clear them.”

Gordon pulls out his gun and shoots at them, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect.

“Huh... I thought that would have worked. WAIT BUBBY!”

His train of thought interrupted as Bubby goes up to inspect the laser trip mines.

“For the love of...Bubby please don’t walk right into a claymore.”

“These ones are different. The other ones were blue, these ones are red.”

“That doesn’t mean you just walk right into them Bubby!!! Look. Okay, it seems like if we’re careful, we should be able to jump over the first one, then crouch under the second one. If everyone takes it slow, then nobody is going to explode, and we can all get out of this fucking death trap and live to sue black mesa for having fucking…. active trip mines just scattered around in their facilities for... some godforsaken reason. Who fucking knows why.”

“Well... this isn’t an Osha approved place to have an armed trip mine Mr. Freeman, so we should be filing a complaint about that when we get the chance to.”

Tommy added in.

“Yeah, filing a complaint is the least I would do with all the safety violations… wait, you said that like there’s an Osha  _ approved _ place to put claymores…..”

Alyx, taking a look during their conversation, experimenting with jumping and crouching while carrying Benry to see if they could still try and dodge the laser’s while holding him.    
It seemed alright. The weight of carrying him seemed to be more a physical feedback thing than an actual change of game mechanics.    
Though with how floppy his ragdoll is, it would still be tricky to not trigger anything accidentally. And she let’s the rest of the group know, meekly pointing out   
  
“It might be tricky to avoid them while carrying Benry.”

“Oh jeeze. Yeah we also gotta get Benry though without, you know, exploding.”

“Rest in peace dear Bipper.”

“Dr. Coomer, for the last time, He.... _probably_ isn’t dead yet.”

As they bicker, Alyx thinks a bit harder then goes,   
  
“Oh wait, no, I think I can handle it. I just have to take it slow.”

(and use his being rag-dolled to my advantage)

They move up to in front of the laser tripwires and gently place Benry on the ground, as behind them Gordon puts his hands out like a crossing guard to try and keep the rest of the team back while saying,   
  
“Alright, you heard them, give them some space.”

“Be careful Alyx.”

  
Tommy added supportively, while Coomer continued with,

“Be careful Gordon, these laser tripwires could be dangerous.”

With Benrys ragdoll on the ground, Alyx carefully stepped over the first laser at about shin level, then crouched down and grabbed Benry from under the laser, carefully dragging him beneath it. 

But when they let go of Benry for a second to scoot backwards, he suddenly sat straight up.

“Yo, I’m like, alive and stuff.”

Setting off the tripline above him.

A quick beep sounded, along with Ayx letting off a noise like a startled dog and Gordon letting off an   
  
“OH SHIT!”

As everyone except for Benry scrambled to get behind cover, and for a short moment it seemed like nothing had happened, until a machine gun started shooting Benry in the back of the head. Benry saying a deadpan,   
  
“Oh noooo.”

In response.

“BENRYY!! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE BENRY!!!!”

Shouts Gordon, as Benry switches to a standing position and jogs around the corner to where the rest of the team was.

“Jesus Benry, you’re just… covered in blood now.”

Gordon just barely peeks around the corner as he continues with,

“Alex? Are you okay over there?”

And crouched behind some boxes, they reply, 

“Uhhh… Yeah I think so… I… Yeah.”

So Gordon turns back to the tripmines saying,   
  
“Okay, so the red one’s activate the turrets, good to know...  **_Benry_ ** , you took a lot of bullets there, you okay?”

“Good to have you back security officer Billathan!”

Coomer interjects cheerfully, though Benry doesn’t respond cus it doesn't seem like they were paying attention to either of them. 

So Gordon chuffs and turns his attention back to the turret. Stepping out from behind cover for a second, which causes it to start shooting again, and Gordon quickly ducks back behind the corner.   
  
“Ok, guess it’s just active now and you don't have to touch the lasers anymore. Do you think maybe there’s some kind of a pattern we can exploit or something to get by?”

But as Alyx scooted over from their position crouched behind boxes, It tripped an enemy summon, with headcrabs teleporting in beside them in a flash of green.

“Aww Crap!”

They shout, pulling out one of their guns to start shooting, which then prompted Bubby to reply, 

“I’ll help you Intern.”

And rush forward through the hail of turret fire, 

“Bubby!! Aww Fuck just run! Just run everybody! Get behind something!”

And the team charges forward shooting headcrabs as they go and rushing past Alyx, who kept pretty hunkered down at first before bringing up the rear.   
  
“Keep going! Keep going! Take out the turret!”

Someone sets off an explosive crate accidentally which takes out the turret, and without the gunfire, Alyx catches up with the mad dash, with everyone making it through a closing door without incident this time. 

The group’s hecktic dash slowing down as they reach a room with soda machines. 

Though with the speed the scientists slurp up all the soda, Alyx misses the chance to see if they can eat or not in this game. Though honestly, they’re still a bit too high strung from being shot at to really linger on that. 

“Jeeze you guys, I think that was the fastest fucking soda machine you’ve taken out yet.”

“I’m getting full Gordon.”

“What? I don't...”

“Soon I will need to use a bathroom.”

“Heh, you know, I don't think Ive seen a single bathroom since the locker room.”

“...I’m getting full Gordon.”

“Pfffttttt. I don’t… Look, you’re probably just going to have to piss in a corner somewhere.”

Gordon turning away from Coomer to check on the rest of the team.

“Oh thank god, there’s a med station. Benry, Benry you can, here, you can use the med station.”

Benry, who’s head and shoulders are stained a black/red with blood from the turret fire, looks casually between Gordon and the first aid station on the wall.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“What? Benry, you seriously got hit by so many bullets to the head, you can’t be okay. Not to mention when you got crushed by that door earlier. Or...almost got crushed. You know, when you tried to hold the door open with just your head.”

“I’m Good.”

“ **Benry.** I  _ do not _ believe you. Go use the med station.”

“Uggh, what are you, a mom?”

But Benry went to the first aid station regardless and stood in front of it for a moment.

“Benry I already told you I have a son named Joshua.”

“Yeah Mr. Freeman had a picture... in his locker.”   
Tommy added,   
  


“Yeah, and you  _ Benry _ , you called him  _ a bit shit _ . You’re damn lucky I’m not holding that against you more while we’re in the middle of an emergency survival situation either. Like I could be way more of a dick about that if I wanted to.”   
  


Coomer interjecting with,

“Ahh, the wonders of parenthood.”

Moving away from Benry, he turns to Dr. Coomer.

“Hey Dr. Coomer, you said you used to be married right? Did you have any kids? Or well, grandkids? You’re old enough for grandkids by now right?”

“No :)”

He replied cheerfully.

“No for having kids or no for not being old enough to have grandkids? I mean you said you used to be married.”

“No :)”

“Uhh… okay. Well, let’s keep going….NO TOMMY DON'T RUSH AHEAD!”

An explosion could be heard in the distance as Tommy set off a tripmine.

“Jesus christ...”

The rest of the team followed after.

Weaving through what appeared to be a maze-like storage area, they made their way past more of the tripwires and turrent’s, Alyx staying cautiously toward the back of the pack and letting the seemingly more indestructible scientists handle the bullets. It taking awhile before Dr. Coomer comments,

“Oh dear, It appears Intern may have a phobia of firearms.”

Gordon replying with,

“What? Dr. Coomer that’s not...”

As Bubby interrupts,

“Gordon’s right, they’ve been fine with using guns so far, and firearm is a term specifically for a portable gun like a revolver. You’d more want to specify a phobia of sentry guns.”

Gordon snickering, 

“What? No, you guys? They obviously just don’t want to be shot at. That’s not really the same as having a phobia. If anything, I'm more worried about you guy’s _lack_ of fear at being shot. I mean, At least I'm armored thanks to the HEV suit.”

“Fear of being shot at is too a phobia.”

Bubby responds, as Gordon attempts to respond with,

“I never said it wasn’t?...”

But gets talked over by Dr. Coomer, 

“Indeed Professor Bubby, I believe the fear of being shot is called ‘Ballistophobia’.”

“Poor Intern, to have such a phobia in a situation as this. And it’s  **_Dr._ ** Bubby.”

At which point Gordon is absolutely wheezing with barely repressed laughter.

“Bubby, no, this, (laughs) this is a terrible time to try to get over a fear of being shot at, we’ve just come up against like 8 turrets so far, what the hell kind of conversation even is this?”

Benry turns to look at Alyx behind him, who had been going gradually more silent as they often did in boisterous groups they didn’t really feel a part of, which was only compounded by the worry of not knowing where they stood in regards to how they might survive this dangerous supernatural situation they found themselves in. Which was really killing their ability to join in the humor.

Benry saying,

"Gonna be a little uhh scaredy cat? Little baby? Gonna get... uhhhh... get upset? Huh? You gonna cry a little bit?”

“Jesus christ, Benry, don't try to fucking...peer pressure...bully them into getting shot!”

Completely ignoring Gordon, he continues,

“You gonna get...you gonna get…. triggered?”   
  


Gordon loses it with laughing.   
  
“Did you seriously just (wheeze) are you bullying them just to make that joke? It’s not even a good pun!”

Coomer interjects,   
  
“Gordon, mental health is nothing to laugh about.”

Bubby continuing, 

“Yes Gordon, show a little sensitivity to other people's issues.”

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s a pun. You know, trigger, gun trigger... ”

“Oh, I see what you mean now.”

“Also, why are you blaming me when it’s Benry who’s the one who told the joke!?”

“Well to be fair, you did laugh at it. Which is pretty insensitive.”

“I wasn’t laughing at people for having phobias!”

  
  


The sounds of distinctly non-turret machine gunfire came from the room in front of them, putting their conversation on hold. Bubby commenting,

“Oh good, it sounds like the soldiers are here to rescue us.”

Alyx’s blood runs cold. It wasn’t so long ago that they played half life that they forgot what happens when the soldiers show up. They could even vaguely remember the room where the soldiers first turn on the scientists and how it plays out in game, and from a glance into the next room, they had definitely reached that point in the narrative.

As the other’s jog past them, Coomer saying, 

“Thank goodness, we’re going home safe.”

Alyx instead backpedals, Catching the attention of Gordon, though he doesn’t comment on it at first, instead saying.

“Alright, who wants to make the approach? Actually, everyone put your guns away first. We don’t want to make it seem like we’re a threat.”

Not really thinking super clearly, but figuring    
  
(Oh yeah, I should probably have a gun out just in case.)

Alyx instead pulls out a gun and backs away around the corner, panic setting in, though their character model was thankfully too simplistic to express that kind of nuance.

Bubby, watching them leave, comments,

“You know, I don’t think Intern trusts the soldiers.”

“A classic symptom of Ballistophobia.”

Coomer adds in a comically sage tone. 

And Gordon replies with grumpy frustration, not wanting to deal with any more of this conversation when safety was literally just around the corner,

“Look, I’ll head in first. Just follow me.”

Putting his hands up, Gordon walks down the stairs slowly towards the soldier in the room.

“We are scientists, we come in pies...shit, I mean, we come in peace.”

The soldier turns to Gordon.   
And back out in the hallway Alyx hears gunfire, Gordon swearing and panicking, and the rest of the science team firing off their own weapons against the soldier, it sounding like they were subdued pretty quickly.

Taking a few deep breaths to try and calm down, they peek in the room, it seeming safe, and head after the scientists. 

Bubby being the first to notice as they ran up to the group.

“You really called it with the soldiers Intern. Looks like they aren't here to rescue us after all. Did anything tip you off? Or were you really just being a whiny bitch baby who’s afraid to get shot?”

Gordon interjecting,

“Bubby, don’t talk to them like that, you literally just…. Wait,  **_did_ ** something tip you off that the soldiers were going to turn on us?  _ Did you figure something out and then not tell the group about it??? _ ”

Alyx was already stressed as hell from the potential that they’ll just get shot in the head or something and die horribly in a modded old video game, and Gordons accusatory tone wasn’t helping. Only getting out a shaky, nervous,

“I...I…...”

“Gordon, you really should take it easier on the Intern, otherwise they might stop talking again.”

Gordon tried to crush down his frustration a bit more at Coomers words, but it wasn’t quite enough to erase a still pretty severe tone.

“Yes, Dr. Coomer, but we’re in a real emergency situation here, and it’s just gotten a whole lot worse now that the military is apparently killing all the scientists! If there’s something that can help the group survive, they need to be able to speak up about it!!”

Too nervous to formulate a plan more thoroughly, Alyx says the first semi-plausible thing that comes to mind.

“I….Ummm...F-Fuck the police?”

“Fuck the police?”

Tommy responds questioningly.

“Fuck the military! :D”

Coomer adds, helpfully editing the famous phrase to better fit their current predicament. 

With Gordon giving one final explosive proclamation of,

“ALRIGHT FUCK IT! GUESS IT’S JUST US THEN! WE’RE THE ONLY ONES WE CAN TRUST APPARENTLY! IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED IN BLACK MESA NOW!!”

The elevator doors open on the upper level of the storage facility.

“WE’RE THE ONLY ONES THAT MATTER! IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED! GO GO GO!!”


	11. Bad Times in Black Mesa

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmQ9LtYT3AE  
  
](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmQ9LtYT3AE)

**~~Injury Broadcast - 2 - Fuck The Police (Sodom Cover)~~**  
begins to play from the phone in their pocket as Gordon and the scientists sprint out the elevator doors, rushing the nearest soldiers in a bloodthirsty frenzy of bullets, fists, and crowbars.  
  
Though “Alyx” wasn’t among them. 

As soon as the doors opened, they stepped to the side and hunkered down behind the wall, feeling on the edge of a panic attack as the gunfire and pre-recorded lines of the npc soldiers caused their stress levels to spike with thoughts of potential death right around the corner. And with the added, oppressive volume of the random death metal song blaring from their busted phone, they were feeling all the more overwhelmed from their situation.  
  
Squeezing unnatural polygonal hands over their character models unnerving lack of actual ears, and pressing their back into the unnaturally textureless wall of the elevator that felt more like glass than the corrugated metal it was textured to look like; they sank to the ground and scrunched into a tight fetal position, just trying to get a grip.   
  


Thoughts swimming with their still young life coming to an abrupt end from some malicious supernatural computer game trying to put them into a false sense of security with funny characters and easy enemies at first, only to have them ripped apart by machine gun fire and die in the room just in front of them.

Where the only ones who would even notice their corpse, would be some apparently sentient but nonetheless dubious amateur improv acting sounding videogame characters they barely know, and who probably wouldn't even care that much about their untimely demise. 

If they would even care enough to backtrack and find their corpse at all.

And their family in the real world? Would be left thinking something like that they had let Scout out to do her business before bed and gotten kidnapped, holding out hope for a few months before realizing that they had probably been killed.

And their best friends? They probably wouldn’t even get to know that much, since they only talk over the internet, and Alyx couldn’t trust their parents to be able to know how to contact their internet friends to tell them the bad news.  
Hell, the people they _hated_ at their old local school would probably know that they’re dead before any of their actual friends do, if their internet friends ever manage to connect the dots at all.

  
  
  
  


They continue to sit and stew like that, and meanwhile with the rest of the group, the infestation of soldiers appeared to have been cleared out of the room, so they were starting to regroup.

“Did we get 'em all? Everyone okay? Benry? Coomer?”

“I’m good.”

Responds Bubby, shortly after followed by Dr. Coomer with,

“I believe that was the last of the soldiers in the immediate area.”

“Did everyone pick up one of their machine guns? Tom-Tommy, you good on bullets? Yeah?”

“.........Yeah.”

“Okay, That should be everyone so lets...”

But Bubby interjects with an indignant tone,  
  
“Gordon! We’re still missing the intern!”

“In?... Oh...Oh shit you’re right, where's Alex?”

Tommy is the first to reply,  
  
“They were the one with the music coming out of their phone Mr. Freeman, so they should be over there where the music is.”

As Tommy turns to gesture back the way they came, Benry is already headed in that direction.

“Okay, so I guess Benry is going to be taking a little initiative and go get them. Bubby, you’re looking pretty beat up, so we might want to have you go use that first aid station on the way over.”

“Oh this isn’t my blood.”

“Oh…. So you’re sure you’re not hurt anywhere?”

"I'm good."

“I’m hurt emotionally?”

Coomer cheerfully adds in.

“We probably all are at this point if I’m being honest….. Do you want to talk about it Dr. Coomer? It’s been a really rough day.”

“Hello Gordon!”

  
  
  


Back in the elevator... Alyx, still sitting on the floor, has their phone out, and is trying to get the music to stop so they can hear themselves think. When Benry appears in their line of sight as if from out of nowhere.  
The frightening jolt to their already stressed system makes them leap to their feet and back into the corner of the elevator, though Benry appeared to have a different interpretation of what was going on.

“Yoooooooo, did you get Pokemon Go to work? You Pokemon Go-ing?”

"……."

  
Alyx stands there frozen, the inconguance of the statement and sudden appearance shocking them out of their downward spiral for a moment. Though they’re at a loss for what to do next.  
Without giving it much thought, they wordlessly hand their phone over to Benry, the phone suddenly disappearing from theirs and reappearing in his own hand. 

Though with his low poly character, his hands weren't actually articulated, so the phone just stuck awkwardly out of his clenched fist.  
But with an unexpected, clearly non-default animation more resembling the sort of motion capture style animation Gordon would do, he held the phone up in front of his face and poked at it with his other clenched-fist hand, walking out of the elevator with his attention still glued to the phone.

Alyx stayed stuck in place for a few more moments, before unthinkingly following Benry back to the main group.

  
Gordon is the first to notice them.

“Hey Alex glad you’re not….Benry did you seriously just steal their phone?”

“Whuh? No? You’re the one who’s always going into test chambers and, going places they shouldn’t to steal things.”

“Well what are you even doing with their phone then? We already went over that it doesn't work! Unless one of you did get it to work? What _are_ you doing with the phone?”

“............................................ Gonna play some……..Temple run.”

After a gentle face palm, Gordon sweeps his hands in a broad gesture of annoyance and exasperation, before focusing his gesturing on Alyx, who was standing a bit behind Benry, and asking,

“Is he _actually_ playing temple run?”

Only for Bubby to quickly respond instead with,

“No, the phone screen just has the same indecipherable garbage as before.”

“Right. So the phone is _still broken_. Which means _you_ ….. ** _Benry_** ….You’re not going to be playing any phone games on the thing. _Just_ like how we explained before. All that phone can do _apparently_ , is listen to what you’re saying and _sometimes_ it’ll start playing a song based on what you said.”

“Are you sure that’s how it works Gordon?”

Says Dr. Coomer.

“Pretty sure? I mean I definitely heard some “fuck the police” ’s in that last song, so that’s probably how it works.”

“Oh whuut? Really? That’s pretty dope. We’re gonna have a soundtrack? A…..sick soundtrack for Black Mesa adventures?”

“I... guess? If you guys want? Actually... sure why not. Anybody have any requests?”

“Well, we never did get to finish the Dr. Feelgood song from before.”

“We could listen to Abba?”

“Maybe some heavy metal covers of anime opening themes?”

“The Tom Jones Spirit in the Room album?”

  
“I could go for a good old hazardous_environments.wav about now Gordon.”

  
  
  


As they make suggestions, Benry looks around, then looks back at the phone, and says.

“*Lip smack* Two trucks, having sex? Two trucks having sex.”

Gordon spins around to look at Benry,

“Excuse me **_what_ ** _???_ ”

“My muscles, my muscles, involuntarily flex…..”

  
  


The bit of lyrics seems to do it, as the phone registers the input and,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om0lmExqKr4>

**~~Two Trucks, by Lemon Demon~~ starts to play from the phone in Benry’s fist.**

  
  


“Haaaaahhhhhh…. It’s doing the thing. Nice.”

“What….....What the fuck...Jesus christ Benry what even is that song???”

“ **PFffftTTTT, BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAaaaa….**.”

Despite having tried to hold it in for a moment, Alyx bursts out with hysterical laughter;  
Coomer saying over the laughing as Alyx’s character model falls to its knees,

“I may be even more emotionally hurt now than I was a few seconds ago!”

And Gordon, being as empathetic as he is, can’t help but start snickering as well, though more at Alyx than the actual song, as the intern was now amusingly doubled over and wheezing. 

Bubby chimes in with a slightly crabby tone,

“It is a pretty tasteless song….”

As Gordon reaches a hand out to rest on Alyx’s shoulder in what he figured was a comforting gesture, still slightly chuckling as he crouches down to their level,

“Hey, heh heh, Alex? You doin alright buddy? You okay?”

If their current form were capable of crying, they’d be replying through a stream of tears, but the low poly avatar did a lot to mask just how messed up they felt right now,

“*Wheeze* I’m gonna… I’m going to die… I’m going to be killed while listening to one of the… friggan… stupidest… two trucks… Crap, I can’t even…......”

They look back at the ground, struggling to go quieter so the laughing doesn’t turn into crying.

Though being apparently incapable of tears, which they guess might be too small for the world to render? They weren’t getting sniffly or anything either, so it’s easier than expected to keep the mask up in their tone as well. And upon breaking the eye contact, Goron turns instead to Benry, asking,

“Benry, holy fuck, why would you pick that song?”

“It’s catchy. It’s a catchy song.”

“Benry, I don’t think we can even turn it off, the phones broke. It's …..* _hah haahhhhh_ * you could have at least picked something more appropriate to our situation! And Tommy! That’s not the sort of song you should play around Tommy.”

“I’ve heard this song before Mr. Freeman?”

Though Gordon doesn’t catch Tommy's reply as he gets to his feet, instead saying,

“Alright team let’s keep moving. Benry? No more song choices for you. Benry has lost his music picking privileges.”

“Aww what? No fair.”

And Bubby adding,

“I call dibs on the next song.”

Alyx gets back to their feet. Muscle memory causing them to brush off their pants from sitting down, despite it being too low poly to render dirt, and then wiping their face with one sleeve of their lab coat, though it was too low poly to render snot and tears. And with the feeling of something akin to the angular plastic of a thick rain coat that was their sleeve, instead of what should have been a much softer fabric, it gave them pause enough to halt the action.

Feeling empty and tired, they pulled up their hud for their inventory like a bored kid at a family gathering pulling out their phone. Finding their actual phone now listed along with their weapons and Scout. 

Benry must have returned it when they weren’t looking.

They pull out a pistol, and follow after the rest of the team silently. The group heading through another of the closing doors that had almost crushed Benry, and coming upon a catwalk over a bottomless black pit. 

And in the middle of the catwalk was,

“Look Gordon, Tombstones :)”

“Look Mr. Freeman, there’s gravestones, can you read what they say?”

Alyx though, seeing the 3 gravestones blocking their path? Okay, that was enough to tip the scales back into an emotional response.  
Though rather than being intimidated, it just made them pissed.

( _Stupid game trying to rub it in my face! What kind of stupid written by an 8 year old style creepypasta crap is this_?!)

They charge forward into one of the gravestones, and without thinking, grab one, lifting it up and throwing it off the catwalk to disappear into the pit below.

“Oh damn! Interns strong! They threw that like it was fucking nothing!”

Alyx pauses, looking between Gordon and the second large Tombstone they now held in their hands, just now realizing how it must look to the others, and how practically weightless the stone-looking tombstone felt in their hands.

They wiggle it around a bit and shakily reply,

“It’s….Um…. They aren’t real tombstones they’re styrofoam.”

“It looks like someone must have set up a prank for their coworkers before the resonance cascade caused the facility to descend into chaos.”

Replies Dr Coomer.

“Uuhhhhhggghhh, I forgot to clean up my epic prank bro.”

“Of course! One of Benry’s classic pranks :) ”

The team continued across the catwalk past the remaining tombstone. Gordon commenting, 

“Okay but how was that even supposed to be a prank? It doesn’t make any sense? Like, is it because of the people we killed earlier? To make us feel bad? Cus that stuff kinda hit’s a bit different, now that we know that the military are apparently going to kill everyone anyways as part of a cover up, and that Dr. Coomer has his whole….I dunno, with his clones and such.”

“This isn’t a prank for us Gordon, so we probably don’t have the right context for this particular prank. Now let’s keep moving. It’s only 18 more hours until we reach the surface.”

“Oh right, yeah, It was for the other employees right? A different science team. Sorry I missed that part. Yeah. Like the ones that actually work around this area of Black Mesa? Hey Benry, it's your prank right? Do you know what the people do around this part of the facility?” 

“......................................Whuh?”

“Uggh, nevermind……. Actually you know what, hold on, I've got a question for all you guys.” 

The other members of the group start sitting down for what no doubt would become another lengthy discussion from Gordon, as he finished his thought with,

“Is there like, an exit somewhere?”

“I do believe we’ve been heading towards an exit this whole time Gordon.”

Dr. Coomer replies.

“Yeah I know that, but, where are the soldiers coming from? If we have 18 more hours until we reach the surface, then there’s no way they could have been coming here before the 18 hours, and it hasn't been that long since the resonance cascade? So they must know a faster way in and out than where we’re heading right?”

Bored with the discussion, Bubby takes out a camera and interrupts with,

“Let’s all take a commemorative picture.”

It snapping Gordon out of his train of thought for a moment as he replies 

“Yeah alright let’s pose, hold on..”

“Cheese :) ”

While Dr.Coomer, Alyx, and Tommy just sit normally, Gordon does an awkward crouch into an equally awkward pose, and Benry starts doing a little pre made dance animation, and there’s a click and a flash as Bubby takes the picture of them. After which Gordon continues, 

“Nice. But yeah, like I was saying, if we get the chance, we should probably try to Interrogate one of the soldiers. See if they know a quicker way out.”

“Sure thing Gordon! Oh look, another soldier :) ”

“OH SHIT!!! RUSH EM!! GET EM!!”

The team gets to their feet and sprint down the hallway after the soldier, though Alyx doesn't bother getting up. Instead waiting until the sound of gunfire ceases, before begrudgingly getting to their feet and heading over. 

Glumly following the trail of military corpses until they reach a point where they can hear gunfire in the distance again, at which point they wait until it ceases, then continue forward again, letting the cycle repeat. 

Never getting too far they can't hear a commotion, but not getting near enough to interact with their "allies". Not being in any mood to deal with them at the moment, and somewhat dreading the moment when they catch up again.  
Though on some level knowing that as much as they might not like it at the moment, keeping close to the rest was probably their best chance for survival. 

But staying this close to the action, they didn’t want to risk their dog Scout getting shot at. So as much as they might have appreciated the company, they left her in the inventory for now.

It’s not too long before they find the rest of the group, apparently waiting up for them in front of an elevator with a first aid station. Gordon being the first to notice with,

  
  


“Alex! There you are, where the hell were you? _What were you doing_?”

And Bubby adding in a quick explanatory,

“Look Intern! We found the surface access! We’re going to go outside.”

(What was I doing? Jeeze, more excuses. Alright, what can I use.)

They stand silently for a moment, burnt-out brain not feeling particularly quick-witted right now.

“Alex?......Have they stopped talking again?”

(Ugggh, _for pete's sake_ , just give me a minute to _think_ >:( Okay... why do people normally stay behind in a group?..... Rogues and other thieving classes stay behind or run ahead for extra looting? Is that a better excuse than saying I don’t want to be shot to death for these guys?)

“Uhhhhhhhh...I’m….I’m….uhhhhh…. Seeing if I can loot?”

“What?”

“Ummm, Looting. I guess... If we’re going to be a proper party of... murderhobos... Gotta loot the killed monsters and enemies.”

“Excellent point Alyx! Looting the people we murder can be done to help recover supplies.”

  
Dr. Coomer adds, before Bubby chimes in with a sour,

“I’m no hobo.”

And Gordon replies,

“ _Is that like a dungeons and dragons thing?_ Well, I guess just be more careful Alex, we don’t want you to accidentally get left be…..”

**_BANG!_ **

…...Gordon makes a disgruntled humph, and with a pose like a babysitter losing patience as they tell a kid for the hundredth time,

“Tommy, We’ve been over this. You’ve got to be more careful with gun safety. Don’t be squeezing the trigger when you aren't using it, and especially not when the gun’s pointed at your friends.”

“But I'm always squeezing the trigger! Should I not be do that-? ...doing that?’”

“What?! *hah haaaaa!!* NOOooo! You keep your finger off of the trigger when you’re not using it!!”

“Oh…..”

“Tommy don’t, don’t point it at me now! …..Okay now you’re just pointing it at Dr. Coomer!”

“Hello Dr. Tommy!”

( **........................................Ive, been shot?** )

They’d been hit slightly off-center in the chest, and it felt like getting punched a little too hard in the arm, but going all the way through somehow.  
They’re not sure if that's quite….right, for the sensation of a bullet. But heck, it’s not like they had ever been shot before in real life.

Looking down at their chest, with the blue shirt but no tie, there's a patch of black-red blood pattern, not super big, but noticeable.

They literally felt stunned. 

Like the wave of adrenaline had pushed them past stressed panic and looped them back around to an eerie calm. 

  
Out of the corner of their eye they notice the med station, and calmly walk towards it, putting an arm out, and the machine makes it’s in-use churning sound, before beeping with a finished noise soon after, implying they hadn’t taken much damage.

They look down at the blood stain still on their chest. The med station hadn’t removed the mark, though they couldn't feel the sting anymore.

(If the med station is only masking the damage with painkillers, the bullet should have still damaged a lung. If I keep breathing fine then maybe i’m okay….Maybe it’s okay…..keep breathing….maybe it’s okay???? Just...keep going until you pass out….Still alive for right now….Maybe it's okay…..)

“Yeah, everyone use the med station who needs it, then on the elevator. We’re almost home free you guys!”

Alyx does as they’re told, but slowly, not fully processing. Following the rest of the scientists (and Benry) into the elevator. Gordon starting up some more small talk.

“What are you guys gonna do, once we’re on the surface?”

Bubby replying,

“....Come back down.”

“What? Whyyyy??? No you are not!”

“I want to do it again, I made mistakes, I need to perfect my run.”

“Bubby, nooo. It’s not an amusement park, you can’t just go for another ride?..... OH MY GOD THAT’S THE SKY! We’re outside!”

As the elevator reaches the top, the team can see out through a large door to an overcast late evening sky……. 

Along with hearing the whistling sounds of falling bombs and resulting explosions just outside. 

The scientists don’t seem to pay attention to that however, because as soon as a soldier appears in view, they’re charging after it like dog’s after a squirrel. Gordon taking a moment to second guess running directly out into a bombing run, before following after as another soldier tries to flank Dr. Coomer,

“Look out! Get ‘Em!! Oh shit Benry Look Out!!”

Alyx, still pretty out of it, just stands a bit in from the doorway and watches it all unfold in front of them, the scientists all sprinting around like chickens with their heads cut off, boxes exploding as they get hit by air strikes, a soldier running their way…

(Oh Shit!!)

Snapping out of the stupor somewhat, they’re barely in time to pull out their own gun and fire a few rounds into the soldier before it manages to reach them, hearing a slightly muffled,  
  
“REGROUP!!!! REGROUP!!!! IN HERE!!! GO GO GO!!”

Off in the distance. 

Which gives them another spike of adrenaline at the thought of being left behind. 

  
So their already barely functioning mental state throws caution to the wind, and they sprint out after, heading in the direction of Gordons shouts, weaving around as they feel shockwaves from the blasts roll over them with whole body vibrations like standing in front of a bass boosted speaker turned all the way up.  
The vibrations making clear that even their insides didn’t feel…. _correct_ in ways they couldn’t quite describe, but perhaps in ways similar to their unnatural polygonal outsides.

Though there’s no time to linger on the thought, quickly finding the opening and leaping through the door, just as they see a flash of familiar orange going down the ladder, grabbing the ladder themselves and sliding down it after them.  
  


Reaching the bottom, they find the rest of the group already in the middle of a dumb conversation, though Benry looks over and gives a quick,

“Hey, you made it.”

And Gordon further interrupts the conversation with,  
  
“Oh thank god, that’s everybody. Let’s go! Hurry!”

And the team takes off down a hallway, trying to get further from the explosions that were still vibrating the walls and ground beneath them, Gordon making a stressed out comment of,

“Oh my god, I just want all this to be over, we made it outside, I thought it was all done. Why are they bombing us?”

Coomer replying,

“Perhaps they’re here to cover up our mess?”

A short tense silence hanging in the air as they keep running, the team feeling the potential implication that they themselves were responsible for this. Before Gordon breaks the silence,

“Well, I guess if they’re going to be bombing the surface, we should keep going further down. We’re still pretty exposed at this depth.”

Seeing through the doorway into the next room, there's an explosion above, and large polygonal chunks of the ceiling fall before them. 

Waiting a short moment for the chunks to stop falling, Gordon walks in, the room proving to be tall and pit-like, with multiple floors below them ending in a large fan.   
Must be some sort of maintenance shaft for the ventilation system.

  
He looks up, seeing a patch of the cloudy blue-grey sky through the blown off roof of the room.

“...Yeah, we’re still way too close to the surface up here. Too exposed. Let’s hurry and get further down.”

Benry walks right off the edge, falling through down and through the blades of the large slow-moving fan below, prompting Gordon and him to have a humorous exchange of dialogue; though Alyx is past the point of paying attention, falling into a kind of thoughtless stupor, silently following along with the team as they go further down the tunnels and vents.  
Until Gordon breaks the trance briefly by addressing them directly

“Oh hey Alex, I meant to ask before, but did you find anything cool while you were looting?...Alex?...Hello? Did you hear me?”

Benry instead hijacking the conversation with,

“What? Looting? Were you stealing things?”

“Benry. Benry noooo, I’m talking about Alex. They said they were hanging back to do some looting with the soldiers before.”

“Who’s Alex?”

“Who’s?... Benry! The intern, that Alex! They’re literally right there next to you.”

“You mean Alyx?”

“........... Come on Benry, please don’t start that up again, I’m so tired.”

“I wouldn't mind checking out any cool loot the intern happened to find myself.”

Bubby adds.

And having only half-heard the question, Alyx responds blandly,

“It’s a shame I can’t take more guns with me. Military weapons and gear are worth a lot of money. If I had infinite inventory or like, could find a merchant along the way and sell a bunch of machine guns and…... keep the money… like for real money I could take home with me…. that’d be pretty great. That’d probably be... don’t have to have a shitty job and work for a living kind of money if I could sell everything.” 

Gordon replies, a slightly confused tone in his voice,

“A merchant? You mean, like a pawn shop? Just having like, a bunch of pawn shops randomly placed around a secret testing facility? *snicker* I don’t think Black Mesa is _that_ in need of extra funding. In fact… you know? Wouldn’t that be even more expensive to maintain than it would make in profits? I mean it’s a classified research facility, people have to live in dormitories and stuff. It’s not like there’d be much coming into Black Mesa that people could pawn off.”

Bubby replies,

“Black mesa does have some ATM’s so people can use the vending machines?”

“Wait really? Well shit, you know, we could probably rob an ATM. They can’t be that tough right? We’ve done a lot harder things today. And we’ve got crowbars... guns…. grenades. Why the heck not. If we ever find one let’s just fucking go for it. Let’s rob an ATM.”

“Oh goody, I’ve always wanted to do some armed robbery.”

“Heh heh, yeah Bubby! No more having to follow the Black Mesa rules. You’re a free man, no more test tube… knowledge… tubes… science… whatever. I mean they probably don’t let their test tube babies get away with that much at Black Mesa right?”

“I dunno, I do get away with quite a lot…..”

“Okay… Well, now you can rob an ATM too.”

“Can I rob an A-T-M Gordon?”

“PFFTTtttt, Yeah Dr. Coomer. You can help us rob an ATM too if we manage to find one.”

“Payday 2, ATM edition. Gonna…. get the high score, gonna pay for some upgrades. Pay for… PSN. Pop some tags at the...Pre-owned games racks at gamestop. Some sick gaming peripherals.”

“....... Benry??? What the fuck??? You literally just complained about me stealing, and now you’re going to rob an ATM with everyone to what, buy used video games? What kind of hypocrisy is this?”

Alyx tuning back out, they continue forward for a good while, managing to sneakily kill some soldiers with the others by peeking through the vents, but otherwise just getting turned around and generally getting lost in the maze, finding a number of dead ends.

It being increasingly clear that Alyx wasn’t the only one who was running out of steam, as Gordon suggests they all stop here for a bit.

  
“Uggh, I don't think this is the way we’re supposed to be going either. You guys wanna take a break? It seems safe enough.”

“Sure Mr. Freeman.”

Replies Tommy as he goes to sit down on a crate. Most of the team following his lead and settling down on some boxes, though there were a few who opted to sit on the floor instead.

Seeming to have recovered just fine physically from being shot in the chest, and this seeming to be a safe zone for the moment, Alyx was finally starting to calm down, though they still felt shaky. 

But at the very least, it seemed like it was finally a safe enough place to let a dog run around without worry of getting shot or falling in a pit, so they pull up their hud to let Scout out of the inventory.

  
(Wait…)

  
There was now a number now listed, saying “100” next to a little health cross icon.

Thinking to themselves with a vague glumness, too burnt out to really muster their usual anger at such an obnoxiously ill timed change,

  
(Whelp... guess I have a health bar now. Woulda been helpful to have that _before_ I get shot. But... whatever I guess.)

Pulling out their dog, they have Scout lay down on the box beside them, giving them pet’s and some reassuring words, hoping to reassure themself as much as their dog.

Though noticing Tommy in the background, who was keeping their gaze locked on Scout with rapt attention, they let off a slightly disappointed sigh and gave in to polite impulse. 

Telling Scout to go say hi, she hops off the crate and waders around sniffing at the various scientists. Tommy saying a pleased,

“Hello :) ”

as Scout came near, shortly followed by a awkwardly arthritic-looking double jointed slav squatting posed Gordon saying,  
  
“Hey there buddy! Are you a good dog?”

And giving Scout some head pets and jankily trying to scratch behind the ears with his weird mitten hands. Snickering as Scouts nose boops inquisitively against the visor of his helmeted character model.

“Damn, it looks like I’ve lost my blood collection….”

The sudden interruption from Bubby startling them, Alyx only just now realizing that Bubby had been sitting next to them probably the whole time.

“It must have fallen off my body :( ”

“Blood collection? You’re collecting? Why?”

“They are extraplanar creatures Gordon, lifeforms completely separate from our own. What Scientist wouldn’t want to take a look at some of these samples under a microscope?”

“Oh…. yeah, I guess so. All this fighting for our lives has kinda made me forget my scientific inquisition. I mean I’m not saying I’d go as far as giving it up for good, but I kinda just wanna go home, eat a big mac, and go to sleep for about 5 days. Maybe get some therapy afterwards, see how it goes.”

With a surprisingly empathetic tone, Dr. Coomer joins in the conversation,

“Well everyone, if you would excuse my language, we’ve been through quite some shit today.”

Gordon responding,

“Yeah, we’ve been through a lot.”

And Bubby continuing,

"We've been through a lot a lot."

Looking with unfocused, but nonetheless supervising eyes at Tommy, who had left his box and was now enjoying Scouts company on the floor, holding out a soda can for her to sniff, Alyx responds softly,

“I could probably help you gather some samples of the creatures Dr. Bubby. It should be fine. Or at least…. shouldn't be any more dangerous than what we’ve been doing so far with killing the things by hand.”

His tone becoming a bit more cheerful at that, Bubby responds,

“Well, good to see not everyone has lost their scientific inquisition yet.”

Dr. Coomer continuing,

“In the middle of a disaster zone and still offering to help with scientific endeavors, we really lucked out with the pick of interns for our journey.”

Gordon stifles a chuckle, before shifting his awkward crouch a little bit, assumedly getting more comfortable.

“You guys do what you like, science it up and all that. As long as everyone gets out of here alive and at least mostly in one piece, I’ll be happy.”

“We’re all safer for having you around looking out for us Dr. Freeman.”

Which catches Gordon a bit off guard, before he replies warmly,

“Awwww, Thanks….Thank you Dr. Coomer. Speaking of which, it looks like we’re missing... it looks like Benry’s wandered off again. We should probably go find him.”

With a dissatisfied grunt he gets back to his feet,

“Ugggghhhhhhhh… I don’t want to go back and get all turned around again in those vents, I’m getting really tired of crouching.”

“Well Gordon, for 3 playcoins I could help you along on your path.”

“3 What? Playcoins? You know what, sure, I accept the transaction.”

(Playcoins? That’s not a Half Life thing.)

“Feed my-my cooooiiiiiiiinnnnss Mr. Fremaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn….”

And they all suddenly appeared somewhere else. Benry and Scout included.

(Was that...Did Gordon just do a cheat?!)

“HOLYSHIT…..wait what? How did we, Dr. Coomer could you always do that? That seemed different from the other times we got teleported.”

  
“Gordon what the hell are you talking about?”

Bubby interjects.

“We...We just teleported, didn’t we?”

“You mean like with the painful flashing green electricity like we did before? No? That hasn’t happened for awhile.”

Tommy piping up with,

“We… We might be too far away from the test chamber for more creatures to appear like that Mr. Freeman!”

And Coomer continuing with,

“Professor Tommy is right, for the moment at least, we appear to be out of the range of the resonance cascade and it’s summoning of extraplanar creatures. And therefore our own random displacement via the green energy around the facility.”

(Is even Dr. Coomer playing along with jump not happening? I mean he’s the one who must have done it, what with the playcoins and everything, It _can’t_ be just Gordon and I who are the only ones who noticed again?)

“But I coulda… You just….. Well…….. Well we’ve found Benry.”  
  


“Yo.”

  
  
“So...Well…. maybe it’s just the sleep deprivation talking. I'm really running out of energy here guys. I think we’ve got to like, find a place to sleep or something.”

Bubby taking the lead, he says,

“We’ll see if there’s a good place to rest up ahead.”

  
And he crouches down into the nearest vent and starts heading off. Alyx stowing away Scout and the team following after. Bubby commenting as he reaches the vents exit with,

“Oh look, we’re back at Silhode.”

  
  
“Oh no... did we really just go in a big loop to nowhere?”

Though exiting the vent, Gordon see’s they’re in the room that had been closed off to them earlier.

“Oh thank god, it’s the control room to open the blast door. We’re still making progress.”

“I'm gonna open the silode exit.”

“Wait, hang on Bubby. Do you think this is a safe zone? Are we safe here? Is it safe to sleep here? Or should we press on?”

“.....We could go and check if it’s safe?”

“Mr. Freeman I’m tired :c ”

“Yeah, me too Tommy. Alright let’s make sure it’s safe.”

The team goes around the room with its various exits, except for Benry, who goes and sits on the control panel and starts doing the sweet voice.

“That door’s closed. That’s not gonna open. That elevators not coming up. Actually let’s check….yeah that elevators out of service. Yeah I think it’s safe guys. We should be able to rest here. So Dr. Tommy, Dr. Coomer, Dr. Bubby, Go to sleep.”

They all put away their guns and humorously ragdoll one by one, crumpling into poses that didn’t look comfortable in the slightest.

“Benry?....”

Gordon swivels around, looking up and down as he scans the room for Benry.

“Uggh, looks like he’s wandered off again. Hopefully he’ll be back before long and isn't like, getting himself killed by soldiers or something….Alex? You too. Go to sleep.”

They look round at the ragdolled scientists below them, not quite sure what to do next. So they sit down and look back up at Gordon blankly, muddled thoughts expecting this to satisfy the game ai like how it had done back during the coffee break.

“Thats...That’s just sitting down. You gotta go to sleep.”

They look around again, then summon Scout. Timidly pulling the dog onto their lap for a hug and resting their head on her back so they don’t have to look at Gordon. Though clearly still not slumping over like the rest of the scientists.  
Prompting Gordon to groan and say more to himself than anyone,

“Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhgghhhhhh, they aren’t going to beeeeeeedddd.”

Before getting more a hold of himself and moving his hands like he were physically pushing down the frustration, before he crouches down in his iconic uncanny valley messed up animation way, and with a more empathetic tone, continues,

“You having a hard time buddy? You want to talk about it?”

Alyx doesn’t respond, just holding Scout a bit tighter.

“Yeah, you kinda have a hard time with the talking sometimes huh? That’s okay. It’s been a really, really rough afternoon.  
Ghawd, it doesn’t feel like it’s only been an afternoon. I know I didn’t expect to be leaving work today covered in bruises and alien slime and having killed like 50 people. Heck, I probably would have considered just finding out that my coworkers were a bunch of cyborg... clone... test tube babies to have been a big day for me before all this happened.  
Maybe you wouldn’t be super surprised from that though, you’ve got an invisible dog, you’re probably more used to this weird Black Mesa stuff than I am. I mostly stick with the theoretical physics stuff, which is exciting in it’s own way, but it’s not potentially illegal underground biological experiments and teleporting aliens kind of exciting.”

Alyx looks up from their dog, though doesn’t meet Gordon's gaze, instead looking at the ground in front of them. And quietly, they mumble out,

“......I’m bad at sleeping.”

“You’re... bad at it?”

They curl back against Scout, eyes starting to sting like they were about to cry, though there were no tears.

“Mmm-hmm. I….It's... really hard for me to fall asleep.”

“Oh….”

“It usually takes about….an hour? To fall asleep? And then... I would always be woken up by birds, or it being too bright, or because someone else was able to fall asleep before me and started snoring. But….”  
  


Their voice finally starts to break,

  
“I’m not even in a bed in the dark. I...I don’t…...”

“Oh jeeze. Hey, hey Alex, it’s okay.”

He puts a hand on their shoulder.

“It’s okay, alright? Hey, how about we move into the other room here with Scout so you don’t have to worry about waking up the others, and you can take a minute.”

Gordon stood and offered out his hand to help them up, but seemed almost startled when Alyx took it, like they weren’t used to being able to actually grab things, and was expecting more to play-act go through the motions.  
Though he quickly gets over himself and tugs to help them up, going the few steps to the security/control room, before sitting down again once inside.

Alyx with her back against the wall and sliding down to the floor, where they could hug their knees and bury their face in it. As instead of going back on the lap, Scout investigates around the room. Sniffing in all the corners and along the table.

  
“It might make things a bit harder if you can’t rest much, but… you aren’t that old right? And we’ve been able to find coffee and soda so far, so….*yawn*..... it shouldn’t be too hard to pull an all nighter right? Maybe if we get out...find a car. Nap on the way home? Can you sleep in a car? I always liked sleeping in a moving carrrrrrr…..like… on a road trip…………...……...”

  
Gordon starts to tip forward, almost falling asleep but jolts back awake and starts rambling more to himself than anyone,

“You….you’re gonna be okay though right? You don’t… have to feel bad you can’t sleep for awhile, you can still keep an eye out. Make sure nothing gets us. Honestly we probably should have had people keep watch in shifts anyway… that’s what they always do in the military...movies.”

(Wait… does he think this is just about the 'having trouble sleeping' part? Like if i'm not upset anymore about this one thing then i’m good? As if we aren’t in the most overwhelming situation in my entire life right now?.....  
I guess maybe if we were talking about some of the scientists, that might be the case though.  
They don’t seem to have much emotional nuance to them, at least so far.  
So should I try to mimic that?  
It still doesn't seem like a good idea to out myself as a player who doesn’t belong here, I shouldn’t draw attention to myself. Just tell Gordon thanks and he can go to sleep now and it’s fine.)

They open their mouth to tell Gordon to go to sleep, but their throat starts to swell with an oncoming sob, so they close it again, eyes burning, and bury their face in their knees. Chest twitching and breath hitching with barely contained crying.

(I can’t do it! I’m not okay!! I only have to pretend for like five more minutes before Gordon passes out and I can’t even do that right!!! I’m going to get myself fucking killed!!! I’m gonna get Scout killed!!! I’m a stupid fucking nerd playing videogames in the attic being expected to be some kind of a badass supersoldier and im going to fucking die!!!)  
  
They freeze when they suddenly feel a hand on their back.  
Apparently even with such low resolution, the sound and motion of them trying not to cry had managed to get through. 

And now, a low poly model from the 90’s, enhanced for the modern day with a very low budget looking motion capture animation and amateur sounding voice acting, weird as heck version of Gordon Freeman was awkwardly rubbing their back. They almost let off a snort of laughter.

(Holy crap, what even is my life…..….)

Gordon takes his hand away, misinterpreting it more as a noise of not wanting to be touched.

  
“Sorry. Back pat’s might be a bit much I guess.”

Alyx pauses for a moment, then blearily turns their head to peek over at Gordon, jankily crouched like a gibbon beside them in his version of sitting down. 

  
It seemed like the world couldn't render tears well, but it could still make your eyesight sort of blurry like they were full of tears, so that’s something I guess.

“You know….. what….what this whole day reminds me of? It feels like I'm trapped in that…. Nightmare on Elm Street movie. The weird sequel? That let the people have more control over the dream and, team up with other asleep people to fight Freddy? And they get like dream powers? You know that one?”  
  
“Dream Warriors?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.  
So it’s like, Sometimes we’re doing okay? And it looks like we’re gonna win?  
The crabs are easy to kill, you guys have been okay killing all the soldiers….  
Like so far it seems like we can fight back and survive? And if I'm careful and we stick together we might be alright?  
But…. it’s like…. What if I’m being lied to? What if it’s all just building up a false sense of security? And any minute now, I’ll let my guard down just a little bit, and some malicious thing I don’t expect will kill me, or worse?  
It’s like I...I don’t know the rules? I don’t know why this is happening? I don’t know what to do? But one wrong choice and it’s all over.  
Or maybe there just are no right choices, and all roads lead to a bad outcome?  
I can’t… I can’t make logical decisions or look up info about how to get through everything?  
And I don’t, I don’t really see a non-malicious reason for all this happening?  
So I’m just left with,”  
  
“......A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors???????”

They nodd.  
  
“And...And I’m just someone getting built up with cool dream warrior powers and a team of tough people, as like, false confidence to…. to make it more entertaining…. when something horrible happens.”

Gordon looks away, leaning more against the wall, taking a silent moment to process as Scout lays back down beside Alyx, having finished their investigation of the room. 

Gordon having a somewhat careful, thoughtful tone as he replies,

“Well…..I’m not so sure about there really _being_ a big bad guy here? I’m pretty sure the resonance cascade was more an accident than anything malicious.  
I mean, unless you think there was some sort of foul play involved?  
But, I was there in the thick of it, and Benry might have tagged along into the test chamber for, I dunno, some stupid fucking reason with passports. But I didn’t see him do anything to the machines when he was in there? Although….Come to think of it, some machines were breaking even before we did the test… I remember because Bubby was in the wall trying to fix something.”

Alyx turns away guiltily for a moment.

  
They knew enough Half Life Lore to know that in the games, the resonance cascade had actually been orchestrated by the G-man. 

(I think there were some other manipulative things involved, but I know the big one was G-man got them bad crystals to research. Maybe something with a nuke as well? But we clearly aren’t following the actual Half-life lore too closely, it’s more like a bunch of friends doing an improv role play with added mods. Including the G-man. G-man was clearly another role player those times I saw them. So they shouldn’t have to follow the plot either. And any weird thing could potentially happen……… Crap.)

  
They bury their head back against their knees, make a grumpy noise, and start tapping their head lightly against their knees like a gentle imitation of someone hitting their hands against their head as a way of punishing themselves.

“ _Urrrghhhhhhhh_ , _what if I'm jinxing it by just saying all this_ ?”  
  


“.........Yeah, I was gonna say, you’re lucky I'm so worn out, cuz A Nightmare on Elm Street is kinda a terrible thing to bring up as a man’s about to get some shut-eye.  
Still though, if I’m being honest, I’m actually kind of relieved you actually seem relatively, well, you know, _Normal?_ I’m not sure if I was expecting that, especially with how the rest of the team has been acting. But like, I’ve seen a lot of shit today? And I still don’t think anything has topped you yet in terms of like, horror-movie spookiness. I mean it’s been close a few times, but nothing quite yet.”

Alyx does a full on snort of laughter at that; having to get a hold of themself better before they can continue with,

“Heh heh heh… _What???_ So you’re saying _I’m_ the Freddy in this hypothetical scenario?”  
  
“Dude! I’ve literally almost been killed like a dozen times today! We’ve been attacked by monsters!  
Hell, I’ve _killed_ _people_ ! We all have! We’ve seen so many corpses today!  
And you showing up right behind me absolutely _covered_ in blood and holding an actual human femur is _still_ the most horror movie thing I've seen today!  
I'm actually even kinda glad you’ve been hanging back looting instead of sticking with the group while we’re killing the soldiers, because seeing you covered in blood like that again, and going after people like you did with the aliens? That would be fucking terrifying! 

He jumbles his words in indignation for a second before continuing,

  
“ _And you've even still got the femur_!!! I saw you use it like a minute ago! Seriously! What the fuck Alex?!?”

  
They’re now full out laughing at Gordon and his frenzied gesturing and yelling. It’s hard to help it with just how stupid it looks whenever the guy moves. And to top it off, sometimes as his torso would turn to look at them, it would mess up the animation for one of his legs and it would start violently jittering.

(Holy crap, I'm literally a random nobody who’s been sucked into in a fictional supernatural war zone, and this guy is afraid of me?!? You threatened to shoot me to death for turning out not to be mute and having a dog a few hours ago!! And I’m the scary one?!? I'm literally pretending to be an intern at the fictional freaking world of Black Mesa so you and the rest don't shoot me to death... and _I'M THE SCARY ONE_?!?! What the hell?? XD )

Though it doesn’t last long, as wearing himself out, Gordon slumps down with a “Hummpf”, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall with the best indignant pose he could manage with his messed up animation. Prompting Scout to raise their head up to look over at him, before laying back down again. 

Alyx let’s the laugh peter out so Gordon can finish his thought.

“......At least…..At least like this I can more ease into it with watching Bubby and Coomer get all…. gross... and…. blood splattered. Since... they’re always saying the _weirdest_ , most _out of the blue dumb shit_. So it’s… easier? I guess? They can be a real pain in the ass, but it’s still... easier... with them.”

They let a silent moment pass, and Alyx rests their tired head back against their knees.

“Man… I feel like I might fall to pieces before a soldier, or alien, or whatever, even gets a chance to rip me apart.”

Though you can’t see any facial expressions with Gordons model, you can still hear a fond smile in his voice,

“I’m pretty sure Dr. Coomer would call that ‘having a case of the crumbles’.”

They smirk slightly into their knees, but they’re getting worn out by all this. It had to be at least like, 1am in the ‘real world’. And even with their semi-improved physique as a video game avatar, all these emotions are exhausting.  
And though they might feel a bit better having talked for a bit, things are still pretty terrible. 

Still, at least Gordon seems safer than he used to be. 

Their vision glazes over and eyes burn with the tears effect again, but this time they decide to just let themselves quietly cry it out. Gordon shifting uncomfortably next to them, and Scout getting up to sniff at them a few times, then sits and puts her chin on Alyx’s head supportively, staying like that for a while.  
  


  
  
  


At least until Benry suddenly appears.

  
  
  


“Yooo, what? _What are you doing_?”

Gordon, who had started to nod off again, jolts back up,  
  
“What? Benry? You’re back? I’m glad you’re….”

“Did you do this???”

“What?”

  
“Bro, I'm gone for like 15 minutes and you go around upsetting people?”

“What are you...”

“They’re like, crying and stuff.”

(....oh crap :( )

Trying to get themselves situated, wiping their eyes and gently saying,

“Benry, no, it’s not...”

But Gordon get’s to his feet and starts telling Benry off,

“ **_Benry they were already upset_ ** ! I was talking with them to try and make them feel _better_ and can get some sleep!!”

“Well, uhhh, you’re pretty bad at it aren't you.”

“What the hell are you all shouting about? I’m trying to get some _fucking_ sleep over here!”

Comes the voice of Bubby from the other room.

Benry turns and says,

“Gordon…. Meanman is picking on Alyx until they cry like aaaaahhhh…. uhhhhhh…… Big ol bully guy.”

  
  
Gordon and Alyx trying to talk him down with,

  
  
“ _No I’m fucking not!!! What the hell Benry!!!_ ”

“Yeah, Benry, It’s not like that, I just...”

Though it doesn’t seem to carry as Bubby barges in shouting, 

  
“Excuse me, **_WHAT!!!!_ **”

And Benry continues, 

“Yeah, You can’t be, you can’t be doing that. That’s like, my friend bro. They said we’re gonna go to their place and play some, Nintendo Switch after. Chill times with Animal Crossing. Play some…...Mario cart.”

  
  
(Oh dang, I didn’t think Benry had actually paid attention to my offer to let him play some switch If I ever escaped.)

“Benry...No. It’s not Gordon’s fault. I’m just...”

Bubby cutting in with,

“Gordon why would you do that?”

And Tommy and Coomer chiming in with,

“Is it time to wake up already?”  
  
“Mr. Freeman that was barely any sleep at all, why are we waking up already? I’m still tired :c ”

As they also come into the small adjacent room, are given a quick inspection by Scout, and see Gordon say,

“Look, Alex was just, having a hard time, so I was staying up for a while to let them talk it out, make sure they’re okay and stuff, and fucking, Benry comes back, and starts accusing me of being a bully!”

Benry responding,

“So why were they crying then if you were being nice? *lip smack* Looks more to me like you were being mean. A Meanman.”

“Cus that’s what happens when people are having a hard time Benry! Sometimes, they cry about it, and then they feel a bit better!”

“Alyx, is that true?”

Tommy asks.

“Y-yeah. Tommy. It's… Normally it’s fine with just Scout, but, Gordon was worried. And he’s, trying to be helpful. Making sure everyone’s okay.”

“I believe you Gordon! Good night :)”

  
And Dr. Coomer ragdolls back onto the floor with a flatline noise.

Gordon cracks up at the absurdity.

  
“HAAAA HAAAAaaaaa… Yeah…. Alright. Okay. Everybody go back to sleep. It was just a misunderstanding. Nothing to worry about.”

  
Bubby sounds less convinced, but turns around to go back to the other room.

“Well….. If you’re sure….”

So Alyx tried to put their mind at ease a bit more, saying a little jokily,

“Hey, I’ve got a therapy dog for a…. A reason, you know? Various issues. Don’t worry about it too much. Normal stuff.”

Though Benry’s apparently more looking to stick to his guns.  
  
“How do we know you aren’t going to be mean again the moment we aren’t looking hmmm?”

“Benry, I was literally about to fall asleep before you showed up and started accusing me of things. I just want to get some sleep. I’m so goddamn tired.”

“How do we know you aren’t going to be mean?”

  
  
“How?...Benry, i’ll be asleep! How could I be mean when I’m not even awake?”

  
  
“I’ll just have to watch you then.”

“ _I DON’T WANT YOU WATCHING ME SLEEP BENRY_!!!”

Tommy complaining from the other room,

“Mr. Freeman, you’re so loud. I wanna sleep :c”

“Tommy, I’m…...urrrg.”  
  
Gordon grips the sides of his helmeted head and groans, trying to crush down his frustrations,  
So Alyx responds with a strained tone,

  
“How about I just go over there on the other end of the room so if Gordon is somehow mean in his sleep I won’t be around for it?”

Benry looks back and forth, But Gordon interrupts,

“Ugggh, fuck it, I don’t even care anymore.”

  
  
Walking over to the wall and crouching down in his way that implies sitting,

  
  
“I’m just gonna lay down, and face the wall, and not talk to anybody, and not listen to anybody, and just go the fuck to sleep.”

He ragdolls facing the wall, and Benry goes to sit on the control panel like he had done earlier. So Alyx leaves the room, heading over to one of the blast doors, to go rest in a corner, Scout following along. Once seated, Scout lays down and puts her head in their lap, and Alyx gives it a few gentle pets. 

Leaning back and closing their eyes, but still hearing the ambient noise of the room around them.


End file.
